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HOW  TO  LIVE  1 00  YEARS 

Dedicated  to  my  best  chum,  comrade 
and  sweetheart,  my  wife 

BY 
G.    H.    LOCKWOOD 

Editor  of 
"THE   BILLY    GOAT" 


THIS  IS   MY  DUTY 

"To  use  what  gifts  I  have  as  best  I  may ; 

To  help  some  weaker  brothers  where  I  can ; 
To  be  as  blameless  at  the  close  of  day 

As  when  the  duties  of  the  day  began  ; 
To  do  without  complaint  what  must  be  done ; 

To  grant  my  rival  all  that  may  be  just ; 
To  win  through  kindness  all  that  may  be  won, 

To  fight  with  knightly  valor  when  I  must." 

By  S.  E.  KISER. 


LOCKWOOD    PUBLISHING   CO. 
Kalamazoo,  Mich. 


G.  H.  LOCKWOOD 


A  PERTINENT  QUESTION 

After  reading  the  title,  "How  to  Live  One  Hundred 
Years,"  you  may  feel  a  mental  urge  to  ask  the  author  if  he 
expects  to  live  that  long. 

I  am  going  to  reply  candidly  that  I  do  not. 

I  will  qualify  this  reply,  however,  with  this  statement, 
that  had  my  parents  and  my  teachers  understood  this  prob- 
lem of  health  as  I  now  do,  and  taught  me  what  I  now  know 
and  have  put  in  this  book,  I  would  then  be  reasonably  cer- 
tain, barring  accident,  thrt  I  would  pass  the  one-hundred- 
mile  post.  The  physical  machine  that  I  am  now  running  tr.d 
some  very  rough  usage  before  I  got  sense  enough  to  take 
care  of  it  properly,  and  before  I  could  have  taken  care  of  it, 
during  the  period  of  infancy  it  was  probatly  injured  even 
more. 

Just  recently  on  a  warm  and  very  pleasant  day  in  mid 
October  I  was  riding  on  a  street-car.  A  young  mother  was 
on  that  car  with  her  baby,  perhaps  two  months  old.  She  had 
the  poor  little  fellow  all  wrapped  up  in  a  heavy  woolen 
shawl  which  was  drawn  over  its  face  and  the  corners  care- 
fully tucked  in  so  that  not  one  bit  of  fresh  air  could  reach 
her  precious  darling.  Every  once  in  a  while  she  would  take 
a  peep  inside  to  see  if  it  was  alive — a  very  wise  precaution, 
for  I  dare  say  that  had  she  not  done  this,  allowing  a  little 
fresh  air  to  enter  occasionally,  that  baby  would  have  been 
smothered.  I  don't  expect  that  child  to  live  one  hundred 
years,  in  fact,  it  will  be  a  miracle  if  he  passes  thirty-five. 

What  I  personally  contend  in  this  matter  is  this,  that  be- 
cause of  my  present  knowledge  of  how  to  live  right  I  will  be 
able  to  live  many,  many  years  longer  than  I  otherwise  would 
live  had  this  knowledge  not  come  to  me  —  and  this  is 
all  that  I  can  offer  to  you.  But  we  can  make  it  possible  for 
our  children  and  our  children's  children  to  live  their  full 
allotted  life,  live  it  in  possession  of  vigorous  manhood  and 
womanhood,  live  it  in  the  joy  that  comes  from  health  alone 
which  is  more  desirable  than  rubies  and  diamonds  and  fine 
gold. 

G.  H.  LOCKWOOD. 


Eat,  drink,  and  be  merry — and  die  tomorrow! 


The, 
Individual 


Supremacy 

—  <7~> 


INTRODUCTORY 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Bible  gives  many  ac- 
counts of  people  who  lived  to  be  far  past  the  century 
mark,  even  Christians  of  this  day  are  inclined  to  ques- 
tion the  correctness  of  the  statements. 

In  Genesis  5 :  5  we  read :  "And  all  the  days  that 
Adam  lived  were  nine  hundred  and  thirty  years;  and 
he  died." 

Seth,  Adam's  first  son,  is  recorded  to  have  lived 
nine  hundred  and  twelve  years.  Enos,  Seth's  son, 
lived  nine  hundred  and  five  years,  while  Methuselah 
broke  the  record  at  nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine  years 
— whatever  else  may  be  said  regarding  the  matter,  he 
was  certainly  old  enough  to  vote. 

If  you  accept  this  record  as  authentic,  the  claim 
that  I  am  making  that  the  average  life  of  the  race  to- 
day should  be  not  less  than  one  hundred  years  is  in- 
deed modest.  But  if  you  choose  to  question  the  mat- 
ter of  the  Bible  record  and  ask  for  some  proof  that  is 


6  HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

more  related  to  our  own  time,  this  can  be  furnished  in 
abundance. 

If  no  one  had  ever  passed  the  one-hundred-mile 
post  except  in  Bible  history,  there  might  be  some 
ground  for  the  skeptics  to  question  my  claim  that 
men  should  live  to  that  age.  In  an  article  in  the 
November,  1912,  issue  of  Technical  World  Magazine, 
by  Dr.  F.  C.  Walsh  (read  by  the  author  after  the 
manuscript  for  this  book  was  in  type),  we  find  nu- 
merous modern  instances  of  longevity  cited. 

Dr.  Walsh  states  that  in  France  alone  there  are 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  people  each  year  who  cele- 
brate their  one  hundredth  or  more  birthday.  In 
Greece,  he  states,  over  fifteen  hundred  people  are  re- 
ported to  reach  annually  the  age  of  one  hundred 
years.  I  am  quoting  directly  from  this  article: 

"There  are  conspicuous  instances  of  individuals 
who  have  lived  far  beyond  the  century  mark.  Take  the 
case  of  one  Drakenberg,  a  Norwegian  sailor  who  fol- 
lowed the  seas  for  ninety-one  years,  and  then,  becom- 
ing tired  of  a  sea-faring  life,  retired  to  a  fishing  vil- 
lage, where  he  stubbornly  held  on  to  life  until  he  was 
a  hundred  and  forty-six.  In  Hungary,  a  farmer 
named  Pierre  Zornay  superintended  his  crops  until  he 
died  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-five. 
Thomas  Parr,  an  English  peasant,  worked  hard  until 
he  was  a  hundred  and  thirty,  and  then  continued  to 
live  until  he  reached  a  hundred  and  fifty-two.  This 
instance  was  vouched  for  by  Dr.  Harvey,  the  eminent 
discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  He  exam- 
ined old  Parr's  body  after  death,  and  could  find  no 
traces  of  any  organic  disease.  Just  there  lies  an  im- 
portant point.  Scientific  hopes  are  based  on  the  fact 
that  if  we  can  escape  the  accidental  diseases  of  life, 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

such  as  pnuemonia  and  tuberculosis,  and  that  by  fol- 
lowing a  special  course  of  regime  planned  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  arriving  at  a  vigorous  old  age,  there  will 
be  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  average  person  will  live 
to  be  a  hundred,  at  the  very  least." 

"Neither  a  wonderfully  endowed  constitution,  nor 
heredity,  explains  such  instances  as  that  of  Thomas 
Parr,  though  he  left  a  son  who  attained  the  ripe  age 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven,  retaining  all  his 
mental  faculties  to  the  end.  But  environment  and  the 
same  habits  and  mode  of  living  would  seem  to  count 
for  more  than  anything  else.  All  through  Europe,  and 
particularly  in  eastern  Europe,  old  couples  are  nu- 
merous, and  the  fact  that  two  very  old  people  attain 
old  age  together,  even  when  their  parents  died  young, 
eliminates  the  hereditary  factor,  and  points  very 
strongly  to  habit  and  dietary  influence." 

The  statements  above  quoted  strongly  substantiate 
the  claim  of  the  author  of  this  book  that  the  race  is 
committing  suicide  by  living  in  an  unhealthy  environ- 
ment and  by  disobedience  to  known  laws  of  the  phys- 
ical organism,  and  that  the  average  life  of  man  should 
not  be  less  than  one  hundred  years,  with  "old  age" 
passing  close  to  the  two-century  mile  post. 

With  such  positive  proof  as  this,  is  it  not  worth 
while,  dear  reader,  that  you  take  heed  and  give  the 
ideas  herein  presented  your  most  thoughtful  consid- 
eration ? 

If  life  is  at  all  worth  while,  the  older  one  grows 
the  more  worth  while  it  should  become.  Men  should 
be  in  their  prime,  both  physically  and  mentally,  at 
from  sixty  to  ninety  years.  Just  think  of  the  race  of 
intellectual  giants  we  would  be  if  all  these  mature 
years  beyond  the  miserable  average  stint  of  thirty- 


8  HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

five,  as  it  now  is,  would  be  added  to  our  lives.  Just 
think  of  an  Edison  at  ninety  or  one  hundred  years  in 
the  full  possession  of  his  mental  faculties. 

This  idea  that  the  "good"  die  young  is  foolish; 
it  is  the  ignorant  that  die  young,  or  at  least  it  is 
through  ignorance  and  a  wrong  environment  that  the 
race  dies  young;  and  it  must  be  through  intelligence 
and  obedience  to  the  physical  laws  of  our  being  that 
the  race  will  attain  to  its  full  stature  of  development 
and  its  full  average  years  of  life. 

That  there  must  be  some  decided  changes  in  the 
methods  of  living  in  order  to  reach  the  desired  goal 
is  apparent.  We  certainly  can't  keep  right  on  living 
the  way  we  have  been  living,  and  not  expect  to  keep 
on  dying  the  way  we  have  been  dying.  If  some  of  the 
rules  of  health  given  herein  seem  drastic  and  startling, 
let  it  be  known  that  the  situation  demands  drastic  and 
startling  changes.  The  matter  of  adding  sixty-five 
years  to  the  average  life  of  the  race  is  no  small  propo- 
sition, and  it  is  no  joke;  it  is  a  possibility  that  should 
be  made  a  reality,  and  it  is  the  hope  and  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  author  of  this  book  that  it  will  help  to 
make  this  realization  matter  of  immediate  concern 
to  all  earnest  men  and  women. 


PART  ONE 

The  human  body  is  a  wonderful  machine. 

If  you  have  driven  an  automobile,  you  understand 
there  are  certain  things  you  need  to  do  in  order  to  keep 
out  of  trouble:  you  must  "feed"  the  engine  properly, 
keep  all  the  wearing  parts  tightened  and  lubricated, 
and  exercise  a  reasonable  amount  of  care  not  to  over- 
load your  car  or  subject  it  to  unnecessary  strain.  In 
other  words,  you  must  use  good  judgment,  supple- 
mented by  knowledge  and  forethought,  or  else  you  will 
need  a  mule  team  occasionally  to  pull  you  back  to  town 
where  some  one  has  brains  enough  to  fix  up  what  your 
stupidity  has  put  out  of  "whack." 

Did  you  ever  think  of  running  your  body  like  an 
automobile  ought  to  be  run?  Did  you  ever  take  just 
a  little  time  to  study  and  understand  the  mechanism 
of  the  wonderful  human  body?  Do  you,  right  now, 
understand  that  it  is  necessary  to  run  your  body  prop- 
erly in  order  to  keep  it  out  of  the  repair  shop — the 
doctor's  office?  And  if  you  do  realize  this,  do  you 
understand  how  to  do  it?  If  you  do,  you  are  lucky. 
Millions  of  people  do  not  understand  even  the  first 


10         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

principles  of  health  and  hygiene.  They  violate  every 
law  of  their  physical  being  every  day  they  live.  They 
go  through  life,  part  way  through  only,  full  of  sick- 
ness, pain,  and  disease —  all  the  result  of  their  disobe- 
dience of  the  very  simplest  rules  that  any  one  may 
understand  who  will  give  the  matter  as  much  attention 
as  is  needed  to  understand  and  run  an  automobile. 

Proof  of  broken  laws  is  found  in  the  thou- 
sands of  human  "repair  shops"  that  are  working  over- 
time, all  the  time,  trying  to  keep  the  human  machines 
in  motion.  In  order  to  understand  properly  any  sub- 
ject one  must  begin  with  fundamental  principles.  To 
know  how  to  work  the  levers  and  steering  apparatus 
of  an  automobile  isn't  all  that  is  necessary, — almost 
any  fool  can  do  that, — but  to  know  how  to  keep  the 
levers  and  steering  apparatus  working  is  a  "boss  of 
another  color"  requiring  "inside  information." 

Even  a  baby  can  operate  most  of  the  "levers"  of 
the  body — he  can  kick  and  cry  and  use  his  hands  to 
grip,  and  in  a  few  short  years  is  able  to  run  and  play 
and  climb  a  tree,  and  has  quite  as  much  knowledge 
of  his  body  as  his  father  and  mother,  which,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  is  very  little.  "Inside  information" 
is  generally  entirely  lacking. 

Speaking  of  "inside  information,"  this  does  not 
refer  to  "dissecting  tables"  or  a  "technical"  knowledge 
of  anatomy  or  the  internal  structure ;  it  has  reference 
to  a  general  understanding  of  the  principles  involved 
in  the  feeding  and  operating  of  the  human  body,  the 
most  wonderful  machine  in  all  the  world. 

If  the  chauffeur  puts  water  in  his  gasoline  tank, 
what  think  you  would  be  the  result?  If  he  puts  sand 


THE  BODY  AS  A  MACHINE  11 

in  his  crank  case  instead  of  oil,  what  effect  do  you 
think  it  would  have  on  the  "life"  of  the  machine? 
You  easily  appreciate  the  fact  that  an  automobile 
needs  proper  food;  that  is,  you  do  if  you  have  ever 
run  one. 

Now  an  automobile,  as  compared  with  the  human 
body,  is  a  very  simple  and  imperfect  machine.  An 
auto  must  have  gasoline  of  a  certain  grade  or  it  won't 
run  at  all.  The  human  body  needs  a  certain  grade  of 
food,  but  it  is  so  wonderful  that  it  will  run  a  long  time 
on  improper  food,  with  improper  care;  so  wonderful 
that  it  can  be  abused  and  misused  and  treated  in  a  most 
shameful  manner,  and  still  live.  A  fool  can  run  a 
human  body  much  longer  than  he  can  run  an  auto- 
mobile— but  there  is  a  limit. 

Perpetual  motion  has  not  yet  been  discovered. 

Some  people  treat  their  bodies  as  if  they  thought 
they  were  machines  built  to  run  forever  without  any 
care  or  attention,  but  this  is  a  mistake,  the  worst  mis- 
take that  can  be  made.  There  is  a  "jumping  off 
place,"  and  the  great  majority  of  people  are  headed 
straight  for  it. 

If  the  chauffeur  hears  a  "squeak,"  he  stops  the 
engine  and  investigates.  If  he  is  a  good  chauffeur, 
he  soon  finds  out  what  is  wrong  and  rights  the  wrong. 
If  he  is  just  one  of  these  kind  that  knows  how  to  "pull 
the  levers,"  he  probably  don't  hear  any  "squeak" — 
all  sounds  are  alike  to  him,  and  he  puts  on  the  "high 
speed"  and  soon  the  "squeak"  is  lost  in  the  roar  of  the 
car  as  it  shoots  forward.  But  that  don't  cure  the 
"squeak,"  and  twenty  miles  ahead  there  is  an  awful 
jolt,  and  a  "hurry-up"  call  is  sent  in  for  the  ambulance. 


12         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

Many  a  human  chauffeur,  when  he  hears  a 
"squeak,"  refuses  to  pay  any  attention  to  it,  puts  on 
high  speed  and — soon  after  the  undertaker  writes  it 
down  in  a  little  book,  "To  funeral  expenses  of  High 
Speed  Jones,  Umpty  um  dollerines." 

One  of  the  first  things  a  good  chauffeur  does  is  to 
learn  the  sound  of  his  engine,  to  tell  from  the  "feel" 
of  his  car  whether  it  is  working  right.  A  good  driver 
immediately  fixes  everything  that  is  out  of  "whack." 
There  is  one  thing  sure :  an  automobile  won't  fix  itself, 
but  it  will  "fix"  any  one  who  refuses  to  attend  to  it 
properly,  and  fix  'em  good  and  plenty. 

This  wonderful  human  machine,  however,  is  very 
different  from  an  automobile,  for  if  let  alone  and  the 
cause  of  the  trouble  is  removed,  it  will  fix  itself. 

But  to  remove  the  cause  of  the  trouble — here  is 
the  rub. 

A  machine  that  is  properly  constructed  is  made  so 
that  the  parts  that  have  the  most  "wear  and  tear"  are 
either  stronger  or  else  they  can  be  easily  replaced.  If 
properly  cared  for,  it  never  gets  out  of  running  order 
unless  it  meets  with  an  outside  accident. 

It  is  the  desire  of  automobile  designers  to  construct 
a  machine  in  accordance  with  the  above  theory;  they 
are  making  good  headway,  but  they  never  will  be  able 
to  construct  a  machine  that  is  "fool-proof." 

Old  Mother  Nature,  however,  has  actually  done 
what  the  most  skilled  mechanics  only  dream  of  doing 
— she  has  built  a  physical  machine  that  is  absolutely 
perfect  in  the  adjustment  of  its  parts  and,  like  the 
deacon's  old  one-horse  shay,  will  run  till  it  all  goes 
to  pieces,  until  every  part  is  worn  out ;  will  run  in  good 


THE  BODY  AS  A  MACHINE  13 

condition  for  at  least  one  hundred  years,  and  then 
some. 

There  are  just  two  ways  to  die  properly — either 
from  old  age  or  from  being  hanged — and  some  of  us 
question  the  latter.  We  think,  in  the  first  place,  that 
a  man  should  not  do  anything  that  would  even  sug- 
gest such  a  punishment,  and  in  the  second  place,  that 
no  matter  what  a  man  does,  such  a  punishment  is  not 
justified,  so  this  leaves  only  one  way  to  die  properly. 

Strange  to  say,  however,  while  most  people  seem 
to  want  to  live  as  long  as  they  can,  and  many  are 
afraid  to  die,  very  few  go  anywhere  near  the  limit  of 
longevity,  not  one  in  a  thousand  passes  the  one-hun- 
dred-mile post. 

Why  is  it  that  so  few  people  die  of  old  age? 

The  answer  is  twofold:  one  is  that  society  does 
not  know  how  properly  to  take  care  of  its  component 
parts,  and  the  other  is  that  the  individuals,  the  com- 
ponent parts,  do  not  know  how  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves. 

A  great  many  people  are  killed  by  accidents. 

Where  one  person  kills  himself  through  accident, 
a  thousand  people  are  killed  by  society ;  the  toll  of  the 
railroads  alone  amounts  to  many  thousands  each  year ; 
the  mills  and  factories  kill  people  like  flies,  and  the 
mines  are  veritable  morgues.  That  most  accidents  are 
preventable  is  a  plain  statement  of  fact.  In  nearly 
every  instance  the  hand  of  Greed  is  the  cause  of  the 
harvest  of  Death.  Just  how  to  take  the  hand  of  Greed 
from  the  throat  of  Society  is  another  question  not  to 
be  discussed  in  these  articles. 

Running,  as  he  does,  such  a  risk  of  being  killed  by 


14          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

outside  causes;  taking  his  life  in  his  hands,  so  to 
speak,  every  time  he  steps  on  board  a  railroad  train 
or  enters  a  shop  or  mine  or  factory,  the  individual 
should  at  least  take  proper  precautions  not  to  lose  his 
life  from  "inside"  causes  wholly  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  individual  sphere  of  action. 

Even  though  society  be  a  perfect  organism,  instead 
of  just  a  beginning,  a  mere  suggestion  of  what  it 
ought  to  be ;  even  though  every  safeguard  against  ac- 
cident be  applied,  and  every  workshop  made  safe  and 
sanitary,  this  would  not  necessarily  mean  that  disease, 
sickness,  and  pain  would  be  banished  from  the  realm 
of  the  individual's  internal  anatomy. 

The  man  who  blames  society  for  things  that  are 
the  result  of  his  own  ignorance  is  playing  the  baby  act. 
Society  has  enough  to  answer  for  without  trying  to 
make  her  responsible  for  your  sins. 

When  something  goes  wrong,  it  is  a  common  habit 
to  pass  the  blame  along  to  the  "other  fellow."  A  great 
many  "blames"  can  be  placed  at  the  door  of  society, 
and  that  means  the  other  fellow;  but  a  great  many 
more  "blames,"  when  it  comes  to  the  question  of 
physical  health,  need  not  be  passed  along ;  they  should 
properly  lodge  with  the  individual  who  is  sick. 

Health  is  the  normal  state.  If  your  body  is  not 
well,  there  is  some  definite  reason,  some  cause  for  your 
being  diseased — out  of  ease,  unwell,  and  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  the  removal  of  the  cause  will  effect  a  cure. 


M  ACHINE 


CHAPTER  I,  PART  II 

Any  machine  to  run  properly  must  be  clean,  well 
oiled,  with  no  parts  out  of  adjustment.  Any  body 
to  run  smoothly,  to  obey  the  master  mind  with  preci- 
sion and  despatch,  must  be  likewise  clean,  well  nour- 
ished and  with  no  parts  out  of  ease,  or  dis-eased. 

A  gasoline  engine  requires  water,  lubricating  oil, 
gasoline,  and  air  instead  of  food;  these  are  vitalized 
into  life  by  an  electric  spark.  With  a  proper  mixture 
of  air  and  gasoline,  proper  lubrication,  cooling,  and 
a  fat  spark,  an  engine  will  run  smoothly  and  con- 
tinuously until  the  natural  and  unavoidable  wear 
brings  it  to  old  age  and  decay.  Let  the  lubricating 
oil  give  out  and  the  cylinders  are  soon  cut  to  pieces. 
Let  the  water  give  out  and  the  engine  soon  becomes 
overheated.  Let  the  gas  or  spark  give  out  and  the 
engine  must  inevitably  stop.  Feed  too  much  lubricat- 
ing oil  and  the  engine  becomes  foul,  soot  accumulates 
in  the  cylinders  and  soon  the  spark  plugs  are  covered 
and  the  engine  misses  its  strokes  and  eventually  stops. 
Feed  too  much  or  too  little  air  and  the  engine  will 
run  unevenly  and  without  power,  if  at  all.  The  entire 


16         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

mechanism  requires  careful  adjustment  and  a  proper 
regulation  of  its  "food"  supply ;  the  result  is  a  smooth, 
even,  and  powerful  stroke  of  the  piston  that  sends  the 
wheels  revolving  with  irresistible  force. 

The  human  body  should  be  viewed  as  a  machine, 
an  instrument  through  which  the  soul  manifests.  The 
soul  might  be  likened  to  the  electric  spark  from  the 
battery  or  magnito  that  supplies  the  life  to  the  machine 
and  vitalizes  it  into  action. 

Without  proper  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  this  hu- 
man body  must  get  out  of  ease,  or  diseased.  But  food, 
clothing,  and  shelter  are  not  all  that  the  body  needs ; 
with  all  these  things  it  can  become  diseased  through 
the  power  of  the  mind,  for  it  is  a  more  delicate 
mechanism  than  the  engine  of  steel,  and  it  is  respon- 
sive to  more  than  mere  physical  substances.  With  a 
perfect  adjustment  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  and 
a  wrong  mental  attitude  this  wonderful  machine  -would 
soon  be  out  of  running  order.  The  mind  has  the  pow- 
er to  make  the  body  sick  or  to  keep  the  body  well,  for 
the  mind  can  and  must  regulate  not  only  the  food, 
clothing,  shelter,  exercise,  etc.,  but  also  the  thought 
waves  of  health,  disease,  hope,  fear,  joy,  sadness, 
anger,  envy,  despondency.  All  these  varied  vibrations 
play  upon  the  sensitive  body,  quicken  its  different  or- 
gans to  action,  cause  the  blood  to  rush  to  the  brain, 
the  heart,  or  the  stomach,  cause  perspiration  to  come 
to  the  surface  of  the  body,  the  face  to  flush,  the  feet 
to  grow  cold,  or  any  of  the  various  manifestations 
that  come  merely  as  a  response  to  mental  impulses. 

If  you  can  once  get  the  proper  viewpoint  concern- 
ing your  body,  as  a  delicate  mechanism  which  you  are 


THE  BODY  AS  A.  MACHINE  17 


Outdoor  life  the  hope  of  health. 


18         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

to  run  much  as  a  machine,  though  a  mechanism  so 
wonderful  that  the  most  complicated  machine  that 
man  has  ever  built  is  but  a  child's  toy  in  comparison ; 
that  this  body  of  yours  must  be  cared  for,  fed, 
clothed,  sheltered,  and  mentally  nourished  and  di- 
rected along  right  channels  of  manifestation ;  you  will 
find  that  if  you  have  not  perfect  health  there  is  some 
good  reason  for  its  lack. 

In  the  rules  I  am  going  to  give  you  I  will  present 
nothing  new.  For  many  centuries  wise  men  have 
regulated  their  lives  thereby,  but  the  masses  of  the 
people  have  been  slow  to  accept,  though  in  recent 
years  great  progress  is  being  made  along  proper  lines. 

The  average  man  today  uses  the  body  as  a  means 
of  physical  gratification  of  the  appetite  and  "lusts  of 
the  flesh" ;  a  great  feast  is  his  ideal  of  a  "good  time," 
and  not  a  few  think  they  are  having  a  good  time  when 
they  have  paralyzed  the  brain  with  intoxicating  drink 
and  descended  to  a  plane  lower  than  the  beast.  All 
manner  of  poisons  are  used  to  lull  the  body  into  a 
state  of  partial  paralysis — tobacco,  opium,  morphine — 
millions  of  dollars  are  spent  in  their  production,  and 
millions  of  lives  are  made  waste  by  their  use. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  we  call  this  a  civilized  age, 
it  is  in  reality  far  from  a  state  of  high  mental  unfold- 
ment;  the  race  still  lives  to  eat,  instead  of  eating  to 
live.  Intellectually  the  race  is  but  a  babe  in  swaddling 
clothes,  we  have  much  to  learn  concerning  the  simplest 
laws  of  health. 

Look  at  the  situation:  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
books  have  been  written  about  diseases  and  how  to 
cure  them ;  thousands  of  colleges  and  medical  schools 


THE  BODY  AS  A  MACHINE  19 

are  busy  educating  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  to 
cure  disease ;  there  is  a  drug  store  on  every  corner  and 
a  doctor's  office  in  every  business  block,  and  a  gener- 
ous spattering  of  them  in  the  residence  districts;  and 
still  we  are  a  nation  of  invalids.  Nearly  every  man 
or  woman  you  meet  has  an  ache  or  a  pain  or  a  cough 
or  a  limp  or  a  something-with-a-long-name-to-it  the 
matter  with  him  or  her.  Death  walks  boldly  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  his  keen  sickle 
ever  red  with  the  life-blood  of  countless  victims — vic- 
tims of  ignorance  and  wrong  methods  of  living. 

A  candid  observer  is  forced  to  conclude  that  if  it  is 
really  the  business  of  doctors  to  cure  disease,  they  are 
not  making  much  headway ;  in  fact,  they  are  not  keep- 
ing up  with  the  procession,  lame,  halt  and  blind  as 
it  is. 

The  plain  fact  is  that  the  doctor's  "business"  is 
not  to  cure  disease,  but  to  "doctor"  it — and  the  un- 
avoidable conclusion  from  this  is  that  if  people  want 
to  get  well  and  stay  well,  it  is  about  time  they  were 
understanding,  not  medicine,  but  the  laws  of  health 
and  hygiene.  Once  let  right  living  walk  in  at  the 
front  door  and  the  dope  bottles  will  soon  be  found 
at  the  rear  on  the  garbage  heap — where  they  belong. 

An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  hundred  weight 
of  cure. 

Did  you  ever  stop  and  think,  what  would  become 
of  the  physicians  and  hospitals  and  sanitariums  and 
drug  stores  and  undertakers,  if  an  epidemic  of  health 
would  sweep  over  this  country  ?  Did  you  ever  stop  to 
think  that  under  the  present  industrial  order  it  is  to  the 


?0         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

immediate  financial  interest  of  a  great  many  people 
that  sickness  and  ill  health  continue? 

When  you  have  thought  this  all  out  it  will  be  a 
matter  of  wonder  to  you,  as  it  is  to  me,  that  so  many 
doctors  and  nurses  are  actuated  by  the  highest  mo- 
tives. And  even  when  it  comes  to  the  venders  of  pat- 
ent medicines  and  drugs,  few  of  them  free  from  the 
worst  of  poisons,  you  must  remember  that  self  pres- 
ervation is  the  first  law  of  physical  life,  and  that  the 
race  is  still  groping  its  way  towards  the  light. 

Neither  wonder  that  the  true  laws  of  health  are 
not  given  to  the  world,  only  through  obscure  sources, 
reaching  as  yet  but  a  few  people,  and  actually  taking 
effect  upon  a  few  of  the  few  that  are  reached.  It  is 
so  much  easier  to  follow  the  crowd,  to  eat,  drink  and 
be  merry, — and  die  tomorrow,  than  to  live  the  life 
of  abstinence,  the  life  of  the  soul  instead  of  the  life 
of  the  body. 

Think  these  matters  all  over  carefully  for  in  what 
follows  I  have  some  simple  rules  of  health  for  you 
that  if  you  will  observe  them,  will  not  only  greatly 
lengthen  the  years  of  your  physical  life,  but  will  make 
the  mind  supreme  over  the  body  and  give  the  soul  an 
instrument  through  which  it  can  manifest  with  power 
and  effect. 


CHAPTER  II 

Before  continuing  this  article  I  wish  to  again 
make  clear  that  I  shall  expound  no  new  theories, 
neither  do  I  expect  or  desire  that  you,  dear  reader, 
will  consider  what  I  have  to  say  as  in  any  way  authori- 
tative, or  to  be  followed  merely  because  you  have  seen 
it  here  written. 

They  say,  "What's  one  man's  meat  is  another 
man's  poison."  I  believe  it  to  be  true.  We  are  un- 
doubtedly made  out  of  the  same  kind  of  soul  stuff 
but  in  different  degrees  of  development  or  unfold- 
ment,  and  this  pertains  to  the  body  as  well  as  to  the 
mind  and  soul. 

The  body  is  nourished  by  food,  the  mind  by  educa- 
tion, and  the  soul  by  aspiration,  and  these  later  in 
turn  react  upon  the  body,  for,  as  a  temple  of  the 
living  soul,  it  is  subject  to  mental  and  spiritual  as 
as  well  as  physical  laws.  In  the  evolution  or  growth 
of  the  mind,  the  education  that  is  needed  at  one  time 
is  not  needed  at  another.  The  nursery  tales  that 
are  used  to  kindle  the  imagination  of  childhood  are 


22         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

not  the  kind  of  mental  pabulum  that  should  nourish 
the  mind  in  adult  manhood.  The  aspirations  of  youth 
are  not  the  outreachings  of  the  full-grown  man. 
The  food  that  is  used  to  nourish  the  body  in  its  in- 
fancy is  not  necessarily  the  best  for  after  years;  we 
all  started  out  on  a  milk  diet,  few  would  maintain 
that  this  is  the  proper  food  for  the  adult. 

Now,  let  us  see  if  we  cannot  get  at  this  in  an  ana- 
lytical way.  Continuing  our  figure  about  the  engine, 
the  body,  or  human  engine,  is  fed  by  three  things :  air, 
water,  and  vegetable  growth,  the  latter  term  em- 
bracing fruits,  nuts,  and  all  manner  of  edible  plants, 
cereals,  etc. 

By  far  the  most  important  is  air.  The  body  can 
go  for  sixty  or  even  ninety  days  without  food,  for 
many  days  without  water,  but,  in  its  normal  state,  it 
cannot  live  for  five  minutes  without  air. 

The  blood  is  vitalized  by  passing  through  the  lungs 
and  coming  in  contact  with  the  air;  the  more  air,  the 
fresher  and  purer  the  air,  the  more  vitality.  One  can- 
not be  healthy  unless  one  breathes  deeply,  and  breathes 
pure  air.  To  live  in  small  stuffy  rooms  with  closed 
windows,  especially  to  sleep  in  such  rooms  at  night, 
is  to  commit  suicide;  the  method  may  be  slow  but 
it  is  a  sure  one. 

To  live  in  a  large  city  surrounded  by  smoke  and 
dust,  and  often  the  nauseating  stench  of  a  "packing 
house,"  is  to  at  once  begin  to  weaken  the  physical 
body  by  impoverishing  its  main  food  which  is  pure 
air.  You  may  not  be  able  to  move  from  the  city, 
you  may  be  compelled  to  breathe  air  unfit  for  the 
lungs,  for  you  must  breathe  wherever  you  are — but 


AIR  THE  BREATH   OF  LIFE  23 

you  can,  in  a  measure,  make  up  something  of  what 
you  have  lost  by  frequent  excursions  out  into  the  open, 
the  parks,  the  lake  fronts,  and  the  outskirts  of  the 
city  where  the  air  is  pure  and  where  you  can  fill  your 
lungs,  over  and  over,  with  new  life  that  will  send 
your  blood  tingling  through  your  body  carrying  vi- 
tality to  every  organ. 

Even  though  your  environment  is  not  a  healthful 
one  you  can  avoid  much  that  is  bad  and  find  much 
that  is  good,  and,  through  a  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  health,  you  can  prolong  your  life  many  years. 

The  first  law  is  deep  breathing.  To  observe  this 
law  you  must  often  use  the  full  capacity  of  your 
lungs.  Ordinarily  but  a  small  amount  of  lung  space 
is  used.  Some  people  breathe  in  little  short  gasps 
that  never  half  fill  the  lungs,  in  fact,  normal  breath- 
ing uses  but  a  part  of  the  lung  capacity,  the  larger 
that  part  the  better.  It  is  easy  to  increase  the  amount 
of  air  used  if  one  will  give  but  a  little  attention  to 
the  matter.  But  in  addition  to  increasing  the  normal 
breathing  not  a  single  day  should  pass  without  bring- 
ing the  full  power  of  the  lungs  into  play.  A  short 
brisk  run  will  do  this  nicely.  You  can  accomplish 
the  same  result  with  a  brisk  walk,  holding  your  breath 
as  long  as  you  can,  and  then  taking  in  as  much  air 
as  you  can  afterwards.  Do  this  several  times  until 
every  inch  of  your  lungs  is  filled  with  air,  and  be  sure 
this  air  is  pure;  go  miles  after  it  if  necessary. 

Avoid  dusty  places,  walk  on  the  windward  side  of 
the  street.  Hold  your  breath  when  you  see  a  cloud 
of  dust  coming  your  way,  in  riding  this  is  often  de- 
sirable when  passing  other  vehicles  that  raise  the 


24         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

dust.  A  little  original  thought  applied  to  your  own 
environment  will  help  you  to  get  the  idea.  If  you  live 
in  a  large  city  you  are  under  some  disadvantages,  but 
it  is  better  even  to  live  in  a  large  city  and  carefully 
observe  known  rules  of  health  than  to  live  in  the 
country  and  violate  them.  The  fact  that  pure  air 
is  all  around  you  is  no  evidence  that  you  are  taking 
enough  into  your  lungs  to  properly  vitalize  your  blood. 

The  nose  is  the  organ  through  which  air  should 
be  taken  into  the  lungs.  Nature  has  graciously  ar- 
ranged so  that,  in  case  of  emergency,  the  mouth  may 
also  be  used,  but  it  is  not  to  be  habitually  used.  If 
you  are  breathing  through  your  mouth  you  are  breath- 
ing wrong — quit  it.  Nature  has  purposely  fitted  the 
nose  to  receive  the  air,  to  filter  it,  and  to  protect  the 
lungs  as  far  as  possible  from  impurities,  both  by  its 
physical  construction  and  its  sense  of  smell. 

One  more  thing  about  breathing;  the  clothing 
must  not  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  free  expansion 
of  the  lungs.  Deep  breathing  is  abdominal  breathing 
— nothing  must  restrict  the  waist.  The  logic  of  this 
is  irresistible ;  the  corset  is  a  curse  to  the  human  race, 
one  of  the  greatest  curses  of  the  age.  By  restricting 
the  normal  action  of  the  lungs  it  strikes  a  blow  at 
the  very  heart.  It  deforms  the  normal  human  body 
and  is  consequently  a  blow  to  art.  This  is  not  pre- 
judice, but  every  word  can  be  substantiated  by  positive 
proof,  though  this  article  is  not  the  place  to  present  it. 

Consider  this  seriously,  you  positively  cannot  be 
healthy  unless  you  breathe  properly  and  copiously;  it 
is  the  first  rule  of  health — the  most  important — the 
easiest  to  observe.  Cultivate  at  once  the  habit  of  deep 


AIR  THE  BREATH  OF  LIFE 


25 


breathing  and  of  often  filling  your  lungs  to  the  limit 
of  their  capacity.  And  the  beauty  of  it  is  that  it 
costs  you  nothing  but  effort,  the  price  you  must  pay 
for  everything  worth  while. 

No  matter  what  your  aim  or  purpose  in  life,  see 
to  it  that  you  are  a  strong,  healthy,  physical  animal. 
The  brain  is  nourished  by  blood,  the  blood  is  vitalized 
by  air.  When  the  body  is  in  normal  working  order  it 
is  the  real  agent  of  the  mind  and  all  its  powers  are 
available  for  effort  in  any  directed  line  of  activity. 
You  might  be  sickly,  diseased,  or  an  invalid  and  suc- 
ceed, but  you  would  succeed  in  spite  of  these  disabil- 
ities, not  because  of  them,  and  no  one  would  be  so 
foolish  as  to  think  that  they  are  aids  to  success.  I 
am  sure  you  will  see  that  it  is  very  desirable  to  have 
the  body  in  strong,  normal  working  order,  and  this 
is  possible  only  when  you  breathe  properly. 


Life's  pathway  is  strewn  with  physical  wrecks,  the  victims 
of  bad  habits  and  a  bad  environment  in  early  life. 


eanuness 


CHAPTER  III 


Next  to  pure  air,  pure  water  or  water  with  no 
harmful  ingredients  or  infusions  in  it,  is  important. 

It  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  body  can  live 
without  injury  at  least  90  days  without  solid  or  liquid 
food,  but  it  can  not  live  without  injury  twenty-four 
hours  without  water. 

Some  people  like  to  disguise  their  water  before 
drinking  it  by  mixing  it  with  rotten  hops  and  barley, 
and  in  other  ways  too  numerous  to  mention.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  drink  lots  of  water  this  way  than  not  at  all,  but 
for  all  that  it  isn't  the  right  way,  and  the  foreign  mat- 
ter in  such  adulterated  water  is  usually  harmful. 

Fact  is,  you  can't  improve  on  Nature;  she  fur- 
nishes just  the  right  kind  of  drink  in  its  natural  state, 
and  you  should  use  it  that  way  and  use  it  frequently 
and  liberally  and  without  fear  of  any  harmful  conse- 
quences. 

I  am  reminded  of  a  life  story  told  me  by  an  invalid. 
When  she  was  a  little  girl,  she  read  about  some  people 
who  were  out  on  the  desert  and  who  died  from  want 
of  water.  This  story  so  impressed  her  child  mind  that 


INSIDE  AND  OUTSIDE  CLEANLINESS          27 

she  resolved  to  try  and  live  on  just  as  little  water 
as  she  could,  so  in  case  of  a  like  emergency  she  would 
be  prepared  to  go  without  it.  She  constantly  denied 
herself  this  great  essential  of  physical  health,  and  be- 
came a  chronic  invalid.  Not  infrequently  a  mistaken 
idea  like  that  will  ruin  a  human  life. 

If  you  want  an  absolutely  safe  rule,  here  it  is: 
Drink  lots  of  water,  and  drink  nothing  else. 

I  consider  it  unnecessary  to  demonstrate  that  the 
drinking  of  alcoholic  beverages  is  harmful  to  the  hu- 
man organism.  Any  drink  that  has  the  power  to  de- 
throne man's  reason  and  make  a  maudling  idiot  or  a 
raving  maniac  of  him,  is  certainly  not  a  good  thing, 
nor  can  he  indulge  in  such  a  drink  even  "moderately" 
without  moderate  injury,  in  proportion  to  the  indul- 
gence. 

I  once  belonged  to  the  temperance  crusaders,  a 
bunch  of  people  who  were  very  sincere  in  trying  to 
cure  other  people's  bad  habits,  and  not  conscious  that 
they  themselves  had  habits,  almost  if  not  quite  as  bad, 
that  needed  curing.  The  constant  use  of  tea  and  cof- 
fee may  be  more  harmful  to  the  physical  organism  of 
the  user  than  an  occasional  glass  of  beer  or  a  high- 
ball. Although  such  drinks  as  coffee  and  tea  do  not 
fill  one  with  a  desire  to  go  home  and  beat  the  brains 
out  of  one's  children,  or  commit  other  acts  of  violence, 
nevertheless  they  have  their  positively  injurious  ef- 
fects on  the  body  and  mind. 

You  may  think  coffee  is  not  harmful ;  that  will  be 
natural  to  a  coffee  drinker.  You  will  perhaps  say,  "1 
don't  feel  good  without  my  cup  of  coffee  each  morn- 
ing,"— neither  does  the  alcohol  victim  feel  good  with- 


28         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

out  his  dram,  nor  the  morphine  fiend  feel  good  with- 
out his  "shot,"  but  that's  no  argument  for  whisky  and 
morphine — nor  will  it  hold  for  coffee  either. 

One  never  fully  appreciates  the  effect  of  coffee  on 
the  body  until  one  has  taken  the  trouble  to  eliminate 
caffein  entirely  from  the  system  and  then  makes  an 
experiment.  The  writer  once  made  this  experiment 
as  follows:  Years  ago  my  wife  had  typhoid  fever,  a 
very  severe  case  of  it  that  required  a  constant  watch 
by  her  bedside.  Towards  the  end  of  this  trying  period 
after  I  had  lost  sleep  for  weeks,  in  fact  had  no  chance 
for  regular  sleep,  I  found  nature  would  assert  herself 
and  close  my  eyes  when  I  was  taking  care  of  the 
patient.  I  was  in  danger  of  falling  asleep  at  a  most 
critical  stage  of  her  sickness.  I  had  heard  that  coffee 
would  keep  people  awake,  and  so  I  took  a  cupful  one 
evening.  I  shall  never  forget  the  effect  of  that  cup  of 
coffee;  it  kept  me  awake,  to  be  sure,  but  it  made  me 
very  sick.  I  could  actually  "taste"  that  coffee  out  in 
the  ends  of  my  fingers,  and  feel  its  effect  all  over  my 
body.  Under  my  severe  physical  strain  I  perhaps  felt 
this  more  than  I  would  in  a  normal  state,  but  it  was 
conclusive  proof  to  me  that  such  stuff  is  not  good  for 
the  human  body. 

(This  is  no  ad  for  "Boostum."  You  may  be 
"posted"  on  this  subject;  if  not,  don't  try  to  cure  one 
bad  habit  by  getting  into  another  one.  I  would  not 
take  the  position  here  that  these  manufactured  "ex- 
cuses" for  coffee  are  as  harmful  as  coffee ;  for  people 
strongly  addicted  to  the  coffee  habit  they  might  be  an 
easy  way  of  getting  rid  of  it.  I  say  "might" ;  I  don't 
know;  personally,  I  have  no  use  for  them.) 


INSIDE  AND  OUTSIDE  CLEANLINESS         29 

There  are  drinks  besides  water  that  are  pleasant 
and  helpful,  such  as  are  made  from  pure  fruit  juices 
— lemonade,  orangeade,  sweet  cider,  fresh  grape  juice, 
etc.,  a  good  plan  is  to  make  these  yourself. 

A  very  strengthening  and  satisfactory  drink  can 
be  made  by  simply  soaking  oatmeal  in  water.  It  is 
good  for  workmen  on  hot  days,  and  as  we  all  ought 
to  be  workmen,  it  ought  to  be  good  for  all  of  us. 

As  for  bathing,  it  is  a  shame  that  our  present  civi- 
lization, so-called,  pays  so  little  attention  to  this  part 
of  social  life;  I  say  "social  life,"  for  I  believe  that 
there  will  come  a  time  when  the  great  public  baths 
will  be  a  general  meeting-place  for  the  people. 
"Society"  gathers  now  at  some  seacoast  and  enjoys  the 
daily  plunge  and  promenade  on  the  beach,  but  the 
working  people  stay  at  home  and  swelter  through  the 
hot  summer  days,  cooped  up  in  their  little  box-like 
homes  (  ?)  without  even  the  convenience  of  a  bathtub. 

Is  it  natural  for  people  to  swim?  Ask  the  first 
kid  you  meet  if  there  is  a  swimming  hole  any  place 
about ;  if  there  is  one  within  five  miles  he  will  tell  you, 
for  he  has  been  there.  On  investigation  you  may  find 
the  place  to  be  some  mud  hole,  but  it  beats  nothing  at 
all,  at  least  so  reasons  the  kid.  I  have  seen  the  news- 
boys jump  in  the  fountain  in  the  public  square  at 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  jump  in  with  their  clothes  on,  and 
jump  out  and  skedaddle  as  soon  as  a  copper  hove  in 
sight.  The  normal  boy  is  crazy  about  swimming,  and 
there  should  be  a  good  big  clean  proper  safe  place  for 
every  boy  to  swim  in,  and  as  we  are  all  children  grown 
up,  this  place  should  have  room  for  the  entire  com- 
munity. 


30         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

Swimming  is  not  only  a  cleansing  process,  but  a 
healthful  and  natural  exercise,  one  of  the  best,  and  it's 
a  shame  that  so  many  have  been  and  are  being  denied 
a  chance  to  enjoy  this  great  sport. 

From  the  standpoint  of  cleanliness  meat  eaters 
should  bathe  very  often.  Vegetarians  who  live  on 
clean  food  also  need  to  bathe  frequently,  but  their 
bodies  will  not  be  offensive  even  if  the  opportunity 
for  bathing  is  very  limited. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  taking  too  many  hot-water 
baths,  though  few  people  ever  hurt  themselves  in  this 
way.  There  are  not  a  few  people,  however,  who  "wash 
the  outside  of  the  cup"  with  great  frequency  and 
unction,  but  who  are  "full  of  dead  men's  bones"  in- 
side and  all  manner  of  uncleanness.  Personally,  I'd 
rather  be  dirty  outside  and  clean  inside — it's  more  im- 
portant; but  it's  better  to  be  clean  both  inside  and 
outside. 


WBBB&z 


Shall  we  Eat, 
WHEN  Shall  weEat?1 


CHAPTER  IV 

From  an  economic  standpoint  there  is  no  greater 
question  before  the  world  today  than  this  question 
of  food. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  purpose  of  this  article  to 
discuss  the  problem  of  raising  and  distributing  food 
so  that  all  people  will  have  a  sufficiency,  but  to  discuss 
the  matter  from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  with 
regard  to  physical  health  and  longevity. 

On  the  question  of  "What  shall  we  eat?"  different 
nationalities  would  supply  different  answers,  largely 
governed  by  climatic  and  geographical  locality.  It 
is  manifestly  true  that  the  food  necessary  to  sustain 
physical  life  in  the  extreme  north  could  not  be  the  same 
as  that  consumed  in  the  tropical  regions,  even  though 
it  were  desirable  to  have  it  so.  It  is  scientifically 
demonstrable  that  the  human  machine,  subject  to  an 
extreme  temperature  of  either  heat  or  cold,  is  mater- 
ially affected  in  the  region  of  the  fuel  storage  tank. 

Briefly,  the  colder  the  climatic  conditions,  the  more 
fat  or  oil  is  needed  to  supply  heat.  It  is  stated  that  in 
the  extreme  north,  common  machine  oil  is  consumed 
with  a  relish,  fat  or  oil  is  not  only  a  luxury  there,  but 
an  absolute  necessity.  While  to  eat  a  tallow  candle  in 
the  extreme  north  is  to  enjoy  a  treat,  to  eat  one  in 


32         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

the  extreme  south,  would  certainly  be  nauseating,  and 
almost  an  impossible  gastronomic  feat. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  experiment  has  been 
tried,  but  in  all  probabilities  the  vegetarian,  or  frui- 
tarian would  find  it  difficult  to  survive  the  rigor  of  an 
extremely  cold  temperature,  though  the  oily  nature  of 
nuts  might  suffice  for  a  time.  The  argument  of  our 
fruit  and  nut-eating  friends  in  this  particular  would 
probably  be  that  for  people  who  live  in  a  climate  be- 
yond the  limits  of  the  normal  human  habitat,  an 
abnormal  diet  might  be  excusable. 

Taking  a  broad  survey  of  the  world,  it  will  be 
found  that  different  people  under  different  circum- 
stances consume  as  food  a  great  variety  of  things, 
ranging  from  bugs,  snakes,  and  bird's  nests,  through 
the  animal  kingdom,  not  excluding  human  flesh,  to 
vegetables,  fruits  and  nuts.  Getting  at  the  original 
source  of  things  some  people  actually  eat  dirt. 

That  the  necessity  of  eating  has,  in  many  instances, 
forced  both  individuals  and  entire  races  to  adopt  cer- 
tain things  for  food,  that  are  not  really  desirable  as 
food,  will  be  accepted  by  students  of  economics  with- 
out argument.  That  appetite  may  be  cultivated  for 
undesirable  things  misnamed  food,  is  also  a  truism. 

That  the  question  "What  shall  we  eat?"  up  to  the 
present  time,  has  been  largely  superceded  by  the  ques- 
tion "What  can  we  get  to  eat?''  seems  equally  true  to 
the  author.  If  true,  it  goes  to  show  that  habits  of 
eating  have  been  acquired  by  other  than  natural  long- 
ings of  the  normal  appetite,  and  this  thought  carried 
to  a  logical  conclusion  will  easily  account  for  the  many 


WHAT,  HOW,  AND  WHEN  TO  EAT  33 

abnormal  habits  and  appetites  that  are  the  heritage 
of  the  average  mortal  today. 

Having  acquired  wrong  habits,  through  necessity, 
these  habits,  like  all  habits,  have  become  more  or  less 
fixed,  after  the  necessity  has  gone  the  habits  have 
remained.  To  those  who  understand  how  very  many 
things  we  think  and  do,  just  because  of  custom  and 
inherited  environment,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  under- 
stand that  very  little  actual  attention  has  been  given 
to  properly  answering  this  very  important  question 
"What  shall  we  eat?"  Most  people  eat  what  their 
parents  have  taught  them  to  eat,  or  what  their  environ- 
ment permits  them  to  eat.  Some  people  even  try  to 
make  a  social  distinction  between  themselves  and  what 
they  are  pleased  to  term  "the  common  herd"  by  what 
they  eat.  History  has  recorded  banquets  where  hum- 
ming bird  wings  have  been  served,  and  all  manner  of 
peculiar  foods  have  been  manufactured  from  Nature's 
store  house  by  skilled  cooks  and  caterers. 

Both  poverty  and  riches  have  served  to  give  a 
wrong  answer  to  this  question  "What  shall  we  eat  ?" — 
the  one  compelling  people  to  eat  what  is  not  proper 
for  food,  and  the  other  impelling  people  to  eat  what 
is  equally  improper. 

The  true  answer,  may  I  make  bold  to  suggest,  must 
come  from  an  actual  knowledge  of  the  kind  of  food 
best  adapted  to  build  up  and  sustain  the  life  energy 
and  physical  requirements  of  the  human  body — con- 
sidered, not  as  a  medium  for  the  gratification  of  appe- 
tite, but  as  a  machine,  to  be  kept  in  good  running 
order. 

That  this  answer  will  be  gained  through  actual  ex- 


34         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

periment,  not  theorizing,  is  a  sensible  view  of  the  mat- 
ter— and  that  these  experiments  must  be  largely  per- 
sonal, and  can  be  conducted  by  any  individual  suf- 
ficiently interested,  is  unquestionably  so. 

While  the  combined  results  of  numerous  individ- 
ual experiments  is  desirable,  to  form  a  general  conclu- 
sion, yet  this  proposition  may  be  stated  with  scientific 
certainty — every  human  body  is  governed  by  certain 
fixed  laws  that  are  always  operative  in  a  like  manner 
under  like  circumstances.  To  explain — 'two  persons 
may  be  very  differently  affected  by  taking  the  same 
substance  into  the  human  organism.  Supposing  this 
substance  to  be  morphine,  one  may  be  killed  instantly, 
while  another  may  seem  even  to  be  temporarily  bene- 
fitted.  The  difference  is  not  in  organic  structure,  but 
merely  in  an  acquired  habit  or  a  developed  appetite. 
By  gradually  taking  poison,  one  may  prepare  one's 
system  for  larger  and  yet  larger  quantities,  until  one 
can  eat  with  seeming  immunity,  enough  poison  to  kill 
a  dozen  people.  But  everyone  can  become  accustomed 
to  eating  even  poison  and  live — for  a  while,  at  least. 

The  above  is  not  a  proof  that  poison  is  a  good  thing 
to  eat — it  is  merely  a  proof  that  old  Nature  fights  a 
mighty  battle  to  sustain  the  life  of  the  physical  body 
against  the  ignorance  and  abnormal  appetites  of  its 
inhabitant.  For  all  that,  the  fight  is  bound  to  be  a 
losing  one  in  the  end,  no  one  can  take  poison  and  not 
sooner  or  later  suffer  the  inevitable  consequences  of 
disobedience  to  natural  laws. 

You  may,  perhaps,  be  shocked  to  know  that  most 
people  are  eating  more  or  less  poison  all  the  time. 
In  other  words,  they  are  taking  into  their  physical  or- 


WHAT,  HOW,  AND  WHEN  TO  EAT  35 


Eats  so  much  it  makes  him  poor  to  carry  it  around. 


36         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

ganism  either  as  food,  or  else  for  the  gratification  of 
acquired  appetite,  certain  substances  that  not  only  do 
not  build  up  the  tissue  or  supply  life  energy,  but  act- 
ually tear  down  and  destroy,  and  prepare  the  body 
for  premature  death  and  decay. 

Granted,  that  a  normal  appetite  will  select  food 
that  is  perfectly  adapted  to  sustain  the  animal  orga- 
nism, we,  as  so  called  civilized  people  have  long  since 
passed  the  point  where  our  appetites  can  be  said  to 
be  natural  or  normal — and  we  must  solve  this  prob- 
lem of  "What  shall  we  eat?"  if  we  want  to  solve  it 
with  a  view  to  perpetuating  the  life  of  the  physical 
body  for  the  longest  possible  time,  on  the  basis  of  analy- 
sis and  experiment,  and  with  a  view  to  cultivating  a 
normal  appetite,  regardless  of  the  cravings  and  long- 
ings of  our  present  abnormal  appetites,  the  results 
of  long  years  of  acquired  habits,  mostly  bad. 

To  claim,  now,  that  because  you  like  a  thing  it  is 
good  for  you  to  eat  it,  would  be  to  discard  reason  and 
acknowledge  yourself  the  slave  of  appetite  alone. 
Whether  it  is  good  or  not  good  for  you,  depends  not 
on  your  liking,  but  on  the  actual  effect  upon  your 
physical  organism  with  reference  to  sustaining  its 
energy  and  longevity. 

The  whiskey  toper  likes  his  dram;  the  drug  fiend 
likes  his  poison ;  the  opium  smoker  likes  his  pipe ;  and 
these  likes  may  be  no  different  from  your  likes  except 
in  degree  of  injury  resulting  from  their  gratification. 

The  answer  to  this  question  "What  shall  we  eat?" 
is  really  very  brief,  and  some  may  think  that  the 
writer  is  joking  when  he  gives  it,  but  I  assure  you  that 
it  is  no  joking  matter.  The  answer  is — "FOOD". 


WHAT,  HOW,  AND  WHEN  TO  EAT  37 

The  fact  is,  that  a  great  many  things  are  eaten 
and  drank,  swallowed,  guzzled  and  bolted,  that  are 
not  food — and  all  that  is  not  food  is  really  poison,  and, 
strange  though  it  may  appear  on  the  mere  statement, 
food  itself  may  be  poison  if  not  properly  eaten,  or  if 
eaten  in  improper  quantities. 

Food  is  required  by  the  human  organism  to  supply 
energy  and  perpetuate  its  life.  There  is  no  really 
pure  food  known  in  nature.  In  other  words  there  is 
always  a  portion  of  what  is  taken  in  the  system  as 
food  that  has  to  be  discarded  as  waste,  matter  that 
cannot  be  assimilated. 

Food  can  properly  be  classed  under  good  food, 
poor  food,  bad  food,  and  poison,  this  classification  also 
includes  drinks. 

The  food  that  can  be  most  easily  assimilated,  and 
will  supply  the  most  energy  without  injury  to  the 
organism,  thus  perpetuating  its  longevity,  is  the  best 
food.  Food  from  which  the  life-giving  elements  may 
be  easily  separated  and  the  refuse  easily  eliminated 
from  the  system  is  good  food. 

Food  that  contains  little  life-giving  force  and  much 
refuse  and  is  not  easily  assimilated  or  expurged  is 
poor  food.  Matter  that  contains  no  life-giving  energy 
and  elements  that  are  harmful,  is  poison. 

To  answer  this  question  "What  shall  we  eat?"  I 
say,  considering  climatic  and  other  conditions  normal, 
a  simple  fruit  and  vegetable  diet  with  milk  or  pure 
water. 

Any  pandering  to  the  appetite  means  suicide — long- 
drawn  out,  and  often  most  excruciatingly  painful. 
A  healthy,  normal  appetite  will  enjoy  normal  food, 


38 

the  very  greatest  enjoyment  so  results,  but  when  one 
feeds  one's  appetite  without  care  or  regard  to  the 
actual  requirements  of  the  body,  simply  lives  to  eat, 
instead  of  eating  to  live,  such  a  one  is  not  going  to 
live  nearly  as  long  as  he  ought  to  live ;  nor  is  he  going 
to  enjoy  the  time  he  does  live  nearly  so  well  as  the 
one  who  has  learned  the  lesson  that  the  body  is  like  a 
machine,  to  be  supplied  with  the  things  it  really  needs, 
and  not  to  be  insulted  by  stuffing  into  it  a  lot  of  things 
that  it  does  not  need,  and  that  are  a  positive  burden 
and  injury  to  its  normal  manifestation. 

And  now  I  hear  many  of  you  who  have  just  read 
the  foregoing  ask  "Why  don't  you  tell  us  just  what  to 
eat?" 

I  have!     I'll  repeat  it: 

Eat  sparingly  of  raw  fruits  and  nuts,  natural  sweets, 
such  as  honey,  etc.,  drink  milk,  slowly,  and  you  will 
have  supplied  your  physical  organism  with  the  very 
best  food,  from  which  it  can  subtract  the  most  vital 
energy  with  the  least  amount  of  energy  expended  in 
eliminating  the  waste. 

And  now  that  I  have  answered  this  question,  to 
my  own  satisfaction,  at  least,  and  after  I  have  given 
several  years  to  experimenting,  I  will  not  ask  you  to 
accept  this  answer,  only  in  the  good  faith  that  it  is 
given  you.  There  is  nothing  like  a  personal  demon- 
stration, I  am  confident  that  if  you  make  this  personal 
demonstration,  and  make  it  with  a  sincere  desire  to 
adjust  your  physical  body  to  the  laws  of  its  being, 
willing  to  eliminate  all  that  pertains  to  acquired  ap- 
petite, and  to  live  normally,  (and  if  you  continue  the 
experiment  long  enough  to  allow  your  organism  to 


WHAT,  HOW,  AND  WHEN  TO  EAT  39 

adjust  itself  to  your  new  mode  of  living,  not  less 
than  a  month,  at  least,)  you  will  find  that  my  answer 
is  rational,  sensible,  and  conclusive — and  you  will  also 
find  that  your  new  mode  of  living  will  give  you  more 
life,  at  a  cheaper  cost  than  the  old.  Your  longing  for 
the  flesh  pots  will  gradually  be  replaced  by  a  sense 
of  gratification  that  you  are  living  in  a  clean,  strong, 
vigorous  body,  free  from  aches  and  pains  and  disease. 
Though  it  may  take  you  much  longer  than  a  month 
to  demonstrate  all  this,  the  demonstration  is  possible. 
Nature  is  wonderfully  kind  and  even  after  years  and 
years  of  abuse  and  wrong  life  she  will  partly  make 
right  old  wrongs  and  repair  injuries. 

If  you  are  not  willing  to  live  right  you  do  not  de- 
serve to  feel  right — nor  will  you  ever  free  yourself 
from  disease  until  you  learn  the  lesson  that  old  mother 
nature  has  for  so  many  centuries  been  trying  to  teach 
you  and  your  forebears,  who  have  largely  made  you 
what  you  are. 

As  to  the  question/'How  shall  we  eat  ?"  the  answer 
is  brief.  Eat  slowly,  masticating  well  before  swallow- 
ing, also  drink  slowly,  especially  milk,  mixing  same 
with  saliva. 

As  to  "When  shall  we  eat?"  here  is  the  rub. 

Cultivated  habit  answers,  "Whenever  one  has  a 
chance."  This  spells  gluttony.  No  matter  how  good 
the  food  you  eat,  too  much  of  it  is  bad.  Once  the 
body  is  supplied  with  the  nourishment  it  requires,  all 
else  that  you  add  is  simply  waste — and  waste  that 
must  be  eliminated  by  using  the  vital  energy  that 
should  be  used  for  other  purposes. 

Very  briefly  and  shockingly  stated,  many  people 


40         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

are  simply  walking  garbage  cans.  They  keep  their  hides 
so  stuffed  with  food  that  the  better  part  of  the  energy 
of  the  body  is  consumed  in  eliminating  the  surplus. 
Every  organ  is  loaded  with  effete  matter  to  the  point 
of  breaking  down,  and  disease  is  the  logical  and  inev- 
itable result — they  simply  dig  their  graves  with  their 
teeth. 

Too  much  good  food  is  far  worse  than  a  reason- 
able amount  of  bad  food.  The  system  is  able  to  take 
care  of  considerable  waste  effectively,  but  no  body  can 
be  used  as  a  continual  dumping  ground  for  food,  be  it 
good,  bad  or  indifferent,  and  not  be  injured  thereby. 

Most  people  eat  too  much.  It  is  very  easy  to  ac- 
quire the  habit  of  over-eating.  It  is  not  easy  to  cor- 
rect this  habit,  for  a  diseased  appetite  craves  food  all 
the  time,  this  craving  is  itself  an  evidence  of  its  dis- 
eased condition.  And  often  from  the  superabundance 
of  the  food  put  in  the  stomach  the  body  is  actually 
starved  for  lack  of  proper  nourishment.  That  old 
saying,  often  jokingly  applied  to  some  person,  that 
"he  eats  so  much  that  it  makes  him  poor  to  carry  it 
around,"  is  often  a  fact.  Every  dyspeptic  is  a  proof 
that  it  is  not  what  the  body  takes  in  that  helps  it, 
but  what  it  is  able  to  assimilate  into  life  energy. 

Every  particle  of  food  taken  into  the  system  that 
is  not  assimilated,  allowing  a  reasonable  amount  for 
normal  waste,  is  a  clog  and  detriment  to  the  body,  a 
cause  of  weakness,  disease,  premature  old  age  and 
death.  Most  of  you  will  be  much  surprised  when  you 
actually  learn,  by  demonstration  if  you  will,  how  very 
little  good  food  is  needed  to  supply  your  body  with 
an  abundance  of  life  force  and  physical  energy. 


WHAT,  HOW,  AND  WHEN  TO  EAT  41 

I  recently  made  a  lecture  date  in  an  automobile. 
The  road  was  heavy  after  a  hard  rain,  and  in  addition 
we  encountered  about  two  miles  of  fresh  gravel. 
After  making  the  trip  of  over  twenty  miles,  and  back, 
thinking  that  the  hard  roads  had  consumed  consider- 
able gasoline,  I  opened  the  tank  to  add  five  more  gal- 
lons— I  found,  however,  that  not  much  over  three  gal- 
lons had  been  consumed.  Three  gallons  of  liquid  to 
push  a  car  weighing  twenty-six  hundred  pounds,  and 
with  an  additional  load  of  four  grown  people,  through 
the  mud  and  wet  sand  and  new  gravel  over  forty 
miles  of  road.  This  is  what  a  machine  of  man's  con- 
struction can  do,  a  machine  that  is  not  nearly  so  won- 
derful as  the  machine  that  you  and  I  are  driving  every 
day,  our  bodies  that  are  much  better  adapted  than  a 
gas  engine,  to  manufacture  vital  energy  from  their 
food  supply. 

For  most  people  two  meals  a  day — light  ones  of 
fruit,  nuts,  and  milk — are  enough.  A  great  many  can 
live  even  better  on  one  meal,  and  a  very  light  lunch 
at  supper  time. 

The  man  who  works  at  hard  physical  labor  may 
need  more ;  it  all  depends  on  the  amount  of  energy  ex- 
pended, how  much  must  be  replaced.  But  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  nine  people  out  of  ten  overeat  all  the  time, 
and  the  tenth  one  part  of  the  time. 

It  is  no  easy  thing  to  conquer  the  abnormal  appetite 
that  is  the  heritage  of  the  ages  of  wrong  living,  return 
to  nature's  food, — which  is  raw, — and  learn  to  live 
right.  But  it  is  very  much  worth  while,  for  it  means 
abundant  life  and  health,  clear  mental  vision,  and  a 
sense  of  cleanliness  and  at-one-ness  with  old  Mother 


42         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

Nature  that  can  only  come  to  those  who  are  willing  to 
"live  the  life." 

And  now  in  conclusion,  ask  the  toper  to  give  up 
his  dram.  He  has  a  thousand  excuses  and  reasons 
why  he  should  not  comply;  his  case,  as  he  sees  him- 
self, is  invariably  an  exception  to  the  rule,  and  he 
really  prefers  to  keep  right  on  tippling.  I  am  not 
asking  you  to  give  up  a  single  meal  or  a  mouthful. 
When  the  conviction  comes  to  you  that  you  should 
do  this  and  live  for  the  sake  of  expressing  your  life 
in  the  terms  of  mental  aspiration  and  moral  as  well 
as  physical  growth  and  unfoldment ;  then  you  will  seek 
to  know  the  laws  of  your  physical  being  and  obey. 
Until  that  time  remember  this:  never  were  truer 
words  spoken  or  written — <"Be  not  deceived,  God  is 
not  mocked,  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap". 

A  FRANK  ADMISSION 

And  right  here  I  am  willing  to  confess  that  I  am 
perhaps  what  might  be  called  an  extremist,  and  that 
an  exclusive  diet  of  raw  food,  or  even  vegetarian,  is 
not  absolutely  necessary  to  health.  I  have  found  it 
works  fine  in  my  own  case,  and  feel  sure  that  most 
people  who  are  willing  to  make  the  personal  demon- 
stration will  find  that  after  a  month's  trial  they  are  able 
to  live  nicely  on  such  food,  and  enjoy  it.  At  first,  I 
seemed  to  have  very  little  to  eat,  that  is,  little  variety 
to  choose  from.  But  I  have  come  to  see  that  with 
fruits  and  nuts  and  good  milk,  honey,  etc.,  I  have  a 
great  plenty,  and  that  one  does  not  need  to  eat  very 
many  things  to  satisfy  one's  hunger  and  one's  physical 


WHAT,  HOW,  AND  WHEN  TO  EAT  43 

needs.  I  do  not  eat  many  vegetables ;  tomatoes,  celery, 
etc.,  taste  good  to  me,  and  I  find  I  have  cultivated  an 
appetite  for  raw  carrots  that  I  believe  are  very  good 
food.  I  tried  fresh  sweetcorn,  and  must  confess  that 
I  like  it  cooked  on  the  cob  better  than  raw,  though 
my  normal  appetite  may  some  day  return  in  full,  and 
I  may  find  that  I  can  eat  raw  corn  with  relish — I  can't 
do  it  now. 

I  do  know  that  many  foods  are  better  raw  than 
cooked,  but  there  are  other  foods  that  may  be  improved 
with  cooking.  These  foods,  in  my  judgment,  are  not  so 
good  as  those  that  are  best  raw,  and  that  is  why  I 
am  selecting  these  raw  foods,  and  I  feel  well  satisfied 
with  the  selection.  Though  this  experiment  with  me 
at  this  writing  has  only  covered  about  six  months,  it 
has  enabled  me  to  add  twelve  pounds  to  my  weight 
over  any  point  I  have  previously  reached,  for  many 
years  back.  My  muscles  are  firm  and  I  feel  full  of 
vital  force  and  in  perfect  health,  and  that  is  the  way 
I  want  to  feel. 

Occasionally  I  am  out  on  a  lecture  trip,  or  am  in- 
vited out  to  dine.  Then  I  go  back  to  my  ordinary  vege- 
tarian cooked  diet.  (I  never  eat  meat,  no  matter  where 
I  am.)  I  find,  however,  that  I  can  note  the  effect  of 
even  one  ordinary  meal,  that  I  feel  sluggish  and — well 
it  does  not  agree  with  me  as  does  my  raw  food  and  I 
am  glad  to  get  back  to  my  peaches  and  cream  and 
honey.  The  fact  is,  I  can't  think  of  anything  that 
sounds  better  than  peaches  and  cream  and  honey,  or 
that  tastes  better  either. 

And  it's  so  simple  to  prepare,  and  so  cleanly.  I 
get  my  own  meals,  and  when  I'm  through  I  wrap  the 


44 


HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 


waste  up  in  a  paper,  and  there  is  just  a  knife,  fork, 
and  spoon,  one  dish  and  a  glass  to  wash,  and  they  are 
not  greasy  or  dirty  in  the  ordinary  sense ;  a  little  cold 
water  rinses  them  off  quickly.  How  nicely  does  this 
fit  in  with  the  ideal  of  Robert  Blatchford,  the  great 
English  writer — "opulence  of  mind  and  frugality  of 
body". 


Fashion 
In  League 

Wiih  ' 
Deaib  and 
Hell-    - 


CHAPTER  V 


Next  to  food,  clothing  is  of  importance,  or  at 
least  so  considered  by  civilized  races. 

That  this  idea  of  clothing  has  been  carried  to  an 
extreme  can  not  be  questioned  by  serious-minded  peo- 
ple— in  fact,  it  has  been  carried  to  an  absurdity. 

The  savage  wears  a  stick  in  his  nose  (and  you  may 
notice  I  said  his  deliberately)  or  a  feather  in  his  hair ; 
other  things  are  considered  secondary  in  importance, 
if  worn  at  all.  The  first  idea  of  clothing  was  un- 
doubtedly for  ornament,  and  the  idea  has  been  a  sticker 
for  even  unto  this  day  the  main  idea  of  clothing  cen- 
ters around  this  word  "ornament,"  though  goodness 
knows  that  some  of  the  duds  people  wear  are  far  from 
ornamental. 

As  the  necessity  for  enlarged  territory  urged  the 
people  from  the  warmer  regions,  the  idea  of  clothing 
as  protection  obtained,  but  the  idea  of  ornament  also 
remained,  and  today  the  two  are  practically  insepa- 
rable. Inasmuch,  however,  as  ornament  is  not  neces- 
sary to  the  life  of  the  body,  and  protection  in  the  se- 
vere climates  is  essential,  logically,  protection  is  of 
more  importance. 


46          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

In  clothing  the  body  the  first  thing  to  be  con- 
sidered is  that  every  limb  and  muscle  be  left  to  act 
freely  and  without  restraint.  The  next  thing  of  im- 
portance is,  that  the  clothing  be  evenly  distributed, 
not  thick  in  one  place  and  thin  in  another.  The  nearest 
approach  to  the  natural  covering  of  the  skin  itself  is 
logically  the  sensible  idea  of  the  matter,  and  in  accord 
with  nature's  plan.  It  is  likewise  desirable  that  the 
covering  be  as  light  as  possible,  just  adding  to  nature 
enough  to  counterbalance  the  climatic  needs.  Having 
complied  with  the  above  requirements  the  matter  of 
beauty  or  ornament  may  be  properly  considered — and 
not  before. 

And  another  matter  must  also  be  considered,  cloth- 
ing must  be  ventilated  to  be  healthful.  The  body  needs 
air,  and  the  more  of  it  that  is  exposed  and  hardened 
to  the  elements  the  better,  in  spite  of  the  dictates  of 
Fashion  and  modern  customs  to  the  contrary. 

Now  let  me  ask  you,  dear  reader,  if  the  clothing 
you  and  your  fellows  wear  will  pass  the  test  ? 

Has  the  clothing  of  the  human  race,  up  to  this 
time,  been  constructed  with  a  definite  purpose  of  aid- 
ing nature  by  added  protection  to  perpetuate  the  life 
of  the  body  ?  Or  has  it  simply  come  from  an  elabora- 
tion of  the  idea  of  ornamentation?  No  doubt,  sheer 
necessity  has  required  covering  of  some  kind, 
whether  ornamental  or  not,  but  the  simple  answer  is 
that  very  little  attention  has  been  given  to  construct- 
ing garments  that  are  properly  adapted  to  protect  the 
body,  and  still  allow  it  perfect  freedom. 

One  thing  that  today  mitigates  against  this  more 
than  any  other  is  the  dictates  of  Fashion,  whose  other 


CLOTHING  AND  FASHION 


47 


name  is  Mammon,  for  the  real  purpose  of  the  con- 
stantly changing  styles  is  grossly  commercial,  though 
few  of  the  walking  clothes-racks  know  it. 

Fashion  does  not  change  the  styles  in  accordance 
with  any  rational  law  of  adaptation  of  beauty.     Her 


48         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

creations  are  more  often  hideous  and  harmful  than 
they  are  beautiful  and  comfortable. 

Just  how  this  old  hag,  Fashion,  has  held  her  sway 
over  the  world  for  so  long  a  period  is  a  story  for  the 
psychologist  to  tell,  and  in  the  telling  will  be  unravelled 
the  cunning  designs  of  Greed,  in  partnership  with 
Death. 

Had  this  she-wolf,  Fashion,  been  content  with 
merely  changing  the  garb  that  mortals  wear,  our  cen- 
sure would  not  be  so  severe,  but  she  has  had  the  audac- 
ity to  attempt  to  change  the  physical  form  that  the 
Great  Creator  himself  has  designed. 

Not  contented  with  putting  the  human  foot  in  a 
tightly  enclosed  and  unventilated  leather  box,  she  has 
insisted  that  the  foot  should  be  made  to  conform  to  the 
box,  and  not  the  box  to  the  fo  t.  And  still  not  con- 
tent— she  has  made  the  body  conform  to  the  box,  by 
placing  from  a  half  to  two  inches  under  the  heel  of 
the  foot,  and  thus  throwing  the  entire  body  out  of 
poise  and  necessitating  that  every  muscle  be  strained 
to  readapt  itself  to  the  unnatural  position. 

Not  content  with  torturing  the  poor  feet  of  her 
modern  devotees,  she  has  gripped  the  very  vitals  of 
the  mothers  of  the  race  and  condemned  her  victims  to 
lives  of  barrenness,  pain,  and  disease.  To  know  the 
enormity  of  this  crime,  it  has  been  estimated  that  over 
$300,000,000  are  spent  annually  for  corsets,  and  this 
is  but  the  beginning  of  the  expenditure  that  results  in 
untold  misery  to  the  living,  and  an  outrage  to  the  un- 
born who  must  enter  this  life  handicapped  at  the  out- 
set, with  a  weakened,  if  not  a  deformed,  physical  or- 
ganism. 


CLOTHING  AND  FASHION  49 

The  power  of  this  she-devil,  Fashion,  can  not  be 
underestimated.  She  rules  supreme ;  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest  we  all  bow  before  her  blood-stained 
throne,  though  some  of  us  unwillingly.  Let  one  of  us 
dare  to  disobey  her  slightest  command,  and  the  rest 
of  us  at  once  make  life  so  miserable  for  the  daring  one 
that  he  or  she  is  soon  forced  back  into  line.  And  just 
why  we  do  this  is  another  story  for  the  psychologists 
to  unravel. 

Do  you  doubt  it?  If  you  are  a  man  (I  often  write 
the  word  with  a  feeling  that  it  does  not  yet  apply 
properly  to  any  of  us),  just  let  your  hair  grow  beyond 
the  usual  "fashionable"  length  for  men,  and  see  what 
will  happen.  I  will  guarantee  that  some  one  will  soon 
notice  it  and  volunteer  to  loan  you  a  quarter  to  have  it 
trimmed.  This  will  be  done  at  first  in  a  joking  way; 
but  should  you  persist,  your  friends  will  take  the  mat- 
ter seriously,  and  you  will  shortly  be  accosted  with  the 
remark,  "For  goodness'  sakes,  Jones,  why  don't  you 
get  your  hair  cut?"  If  you  still  have  courage,  the 
boys  will  follow  you  around  and  "kid"  you  openly  on 
the  streets ;  and  finally,  if  you  refuse  to  come  under, 
the  police  will  take  to  keeping  an  eye  on  you — and 
eventually  you  may  land  in  the  "bug  house." 

Is  it  anybody's  business  how  you  wear  your  hair? 
Are  you  hurting  anybody  by  wearing  it  long?  Is  it 
hurting  you  ?  Shouldn't  you  be  permitted  to  wear  your 
hair  as  you  please,?  But  are  you? 

Suppose  your  aching  feet  cry  out  for  freedom, 
and  you  think  of  the  time  when  you  were  a  boy,  and 
how  when  the  warm  spring  sun  commenced  to  melt 
the  snow  you  counted  the  days  that  would  elapse  be- 


50         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

fore  you  could  go  barefooted.  And,  oh,  the  joy  of  it, 
to  unlimber  the  toes  and  feel  the  earth  beneath  your 
feet?  And  you  think  it  over — you  will  at  once  con- 
clude, no  matter  how  much  you  wish  to  do  so,  that 
it  won't  do  for  you  to  go  barefooted.  You  perhaps 
don't  know  just  why  you  reach  that  conclusion, — this 
old  she-devil,  Fashion,  however,  is  at  the  back  of  it. 
But  you  decide  at  least  to  compromise  with  yourself, 
and  you  buy  a  pair  of  sandals.  You  may  be  "permit- 
ted" to  wear  them  around  the  house  without  serious 
consequences,  but  dare  to  be  caught  out  on  the  public 
highway  with  them  on  and  you  will  soon  be  whipped 
back  into  line,  and  conclude  that  it  is  easier  to  suffer 
the  pains  of  corns  and  bunions  than  to  run  the  gaunt- 
let of  ridicule. 

Just  wear  a  long-tailed  coat  when  a  short-tailed 
coat  is  "proper,"  and  you  will  "get  yours,"  full  meas- 
ure, packed  down  and  running  over. 

And,  Mr.  "He-animal,"  will  you  kindly  note  that 
most  of  the  above  remarks  apply  to  your  sex,  for  you 
are  as  much  in  the  net  of  this  demon  of  Fashion  as 
are  the  so-called  weaker  sex,  though  perhaps  you  do 
not  go  to  quite  the  extremes  they  do  in  showing  it? 
Aside  from  the  corset  and  the  extreme  high  heels,  the 
female  attire  is  not  so  very  much  worse  than  the  male. 
It's  a  hot  day,  thermometer  hovering  around  one  hun- 
dred degrees  in  the  sun.  I  look  out  of  my  cell  window 
(no,  I'm  not  in  jail,  just  confined  to  an  office),  and 
see  a  lot  of  women  daintily  dressed  in  white  gauzy 
material,  light  of  weight  and  suggesting  some  evidence 
of  their  actually  being  "rational,"  in  spite  of  their 
poor  deformed  feet  and  "hobbling"  walk,  and  their 


CLOTHING  AND  FASHION  51 

stiff,  unbending,  ungraceful,  pinched,  and  tortured 
waists.  I  see  a  lot  of  men  dressed  largely  in  dark 
material,  nearly  every  one  of  them  wearing  a  coat  and 
most  of  them  a  vest,  all  topped  off  with  a  heavy  "sky- 
piece"  that  is  surrounded  by  a  leather  band  and  abso- 
lutely shuts  off  all  ventilation  from  the  top  of  the 
head — 'which  may  be  the  cause  for  the  hot  air  that  so 
frequently  gets  inside  this  peculiar  enlargement  on  the 
top  end  of  our  spinal  columns. 

I  guess  the  average  woman,  in  spite  of  her  frills 
and  folderals,  is  about  as  comfortable  as  the  average 
man,  for  she  generally  takes  it  pretty  easy  around  the 
house  in  her  loose  flowing  kimono  and  sloppy  slippers. 

But  the  fact  is,  that  we  are  neither  one  of  us  really 
comfortable  or  well  dressed,  in  spite  of  the  pride  we 
take  in  some  of  our  duds.  And  the  further  fact  is  that 
as  long  as  the  race  is  ruled  by  commercialism,  we  will 
all  of  us  conform  more  or  less  strictly  to  the  dictates 
of  this  old  hag,  Fashion,  and  our  poor  bodies  will  suf- 
fer in  the  degree  that  we  obey. 

To  be  truly  free,  to  live  as  we  please,  to  dress  as  we 
please,  to  eat  as  we  please,  and  to  please  to  live  and 
dress  and  eat  in  harmony  with  the  fundamental  laws 
of  our  physical  being, — this  is  but  the  dream  of  an 
extremist  today,  but  the  possibility  of  its  realization 
is  coming  tomorrow — that  is,  the  writer  hopes  it  will. 

In  the  meantime  please  reread  the  fundamental 
principles  governing  the  proper  clothing  of  the  body, 
as  herebefore  stated,  and  try  to  comply  with  them  to 
the  best  of  your  knowledge,  and  your  moral  and  men- 
tal courage,  for  they  have  to  do  with  the  lengthening 
of  your  years. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Primitive  man  was  a  nest-builder. 

For  many  centuries  the  human  family  lived  in  the 
treetops,  making  therein  their  nests,  much  like  the 
birds.  The  treetop  home  was  not  one  of  choice  so 
much  as  necessity,  for  primitive  man  was  without 
tools  or  weapons,  and  a  legitimate  prey  of  all  the  beasts 
of  the  field.  Even  in  their  treetop  homes  they  were 
not  safe  from  the  huge  reptiles  that  were  so  feared 
that  unto  this  day  the  race  shudders  at  the  sight  of  a 
harmless  garter  snake. 

Did  you  ever  dream  that  you  were  falling,  falling? 
Ask  the  psychology  man;  he  can  explain  to  you  how 
this  dream  conies  from  the  distant  past  when  your 
forebears  lived  in  the  treetops  and  actually  took  .1 
tumble  out  of  them  occasionally.  It  was  probably  not 
until  man  discovered  and  tamed  the  fire  that  he  dared 
to  crawl  down  from  his  treetop  home  and  live  on  the 
ground,  in  some  sheltering  cave  or  excavation  of  his 
own  construction. 

One  of  the  sights  that  interests  the  northern  visitor 
to  the  south  is  an  occasional  stone  fireplace  and  chim- 
ney that  stands  out  in  the  open  without  any  house 
around  it,  the  wooden  structure  having  burned  away. 
It  may  not  be  a  fact,  but  I  surmise  that  they  frequently 


A  MANSION  OR  A  HOVEL  53 

rebuild  a  house  around  a  good  chimney  of  this  kind; 
if  so,  they  are  simply  following  out  the  plans  of  the 
first  architects,  for  the  home,  as  we  think  of  it  today, 
was  builded  around  the  hearth. 

With  the  development  of  the  tools  the  homes  de- 
veloped, though  it  took  many,  many  centuries  for  us  to 
learn  how  to  make  a  house  that  is  really  adapted  to  the 
physical  life  and  comfort  of  the  human  animal.  The 
fact  is,  that  we  have  yet  to  learn  a  few  important 
things,  and  to  apply  the  many  things  we  do  know  so 
that  universal  benefit  will  result. 

Strange  to  say,  with  all  our  knowledge  as  to  how 
to  construct  most  wonderful  buildings  of  stone,  brick, 
cement,  and  wood,  structures  that  rear  their  spires  and 
turrets  almost  into  the  clouds,  yet  a  great  many  people 
still  live  in  shacks,  and  square  wooden  boxes  with 
windows  in  them,  that  are  little  better  than  the  early 
structures  of  the  savages ;  and  many  thousands  live  in 
congested  slum  districts  of  the  cities,  in  places  that  are 
foul  and  unsanitary  and  far  worse  than  the  treetop 
nests  of  our  primitive  ancestors. 

There  were  undoubtedly  serious  objections  to  these 
treetop  homes,  and  no  one  would  advocate  a  return  to 
this  mode  of  living ;  yet  with  all  these  objections  they 
were  well  ventilated,  and  that  is  more  than  can  be  said 
of  many  of  our  dwelling-places  today.  One  thing  is 
certain,  every  savage  had  some  kind  of  a  home,  some 
kind  of  a  nest  or  cave  or  hollow  tree  that  was  his,  or 
that  was  tribal  property  and  that  meant  the  same 
thing.  After  many,  many  thousands  of  years  of  so- 
called  "civilization"  we  have  finally  reached  a  stage 
where  a  majority  of  the  race  have  no  homes  of  their 


54         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

own,  and  must  pay  tribute  to  those  who  own  many 
homes  in  order  to  have  a  chance  to  live  inside  pro- 
tecting walls. 

It  isn't  because  we,  as  a  race,  do  not  know  how  to 
build  homes,  beautiful  homes,  homes  fitted  with  every 
convenience  and  adapted  to  shelter  and  prolong  human 
life,  that  so  many  people  are  "homeless."  Neither  is  it 
because  these  people  are  not  industrious  that  they  are 
homeless,  for  it  is  the  vast  working  class,  the  real  use- 
ful toilers  of  the  world,  who  are  the  homeless  ones  to- 
day— but  this  is  another  question  for  the  political 
economist  to  answer.  It  is  my  purpose  here  to  state 
just  what  are  the  requirements  of  a  shelter  adapted 
to  human  habitation  under  modern  conditions. 

The  first  essential  is  thorough  ventilation.  This 
question  of  air  is  more  important  than  most  people 
understand  it  to  be.  A  loosely  constructed  "shack" 
out  in  the  woods  is  a  far  more  healthful  abiding-place 
than  a  closely  walled-in  mansion  in  the  heart  of  the 
dusty,  stench-reeking  city,  no  matter  how  modern  its 
structure  or  how  beautiful  and  comfortable  its  equip- 
ment. With  plenty  of  fresh  air,  especially  at  night,  the 
body  will  gather  in  much  strength  and  put  up  a  vigor- 
ous resistance  to  any  germ  intruder  that  comes  along. 

The  human  animal  needs  sunshine  just  as  much  as 
a  plant. 

And  right  here  is  an  idea  I  want  to  impress  upon 
you  very  strongly :  no  structure  can  be  built  that  is  a 
proper  habitation  for  man  all  the  time.  He  must  get 
out  in  the  open,  out  where  there  is  green  grass  and 
trees  and  flowers  and  water  and  nature.  If  he  per- 
sists in  shutting  himself  up  inside,  no  matter  how  nice 


A  MANSION  OR  A  HOVEL  55 

his  quarters,  old  Mother  Nature  will  resent  his  slight- 
ing her  in  this  way  and  soon  send  a  messenger  for  him. 
no  other  than  the  Grim  Reaper  himself. 

Herein  has  modern  civilization  reached  a  dangerous 
stage.  It  has  compelled  millions  of  men  and  women 
to  spend  their  lives  inside  the  various  buildings  it  has 
constructed,  its  mills  and  factories  and  workshops  and 
stores  and  offices  and  warehouses.  It  has  even  sen- 
tenced hundreds  of  thousands  to  live  beneath  the 
earth  in  its  mines.  Were  these  work-places  carefully 
built  with  an  idea  of  furnishing  the  maximum  of  air, 
and  amid  natural  surroundings,  it  would  not  be  so  bad ; 
but  constructed  as  they  are,  jammed  up  one  against 
another,  with  millions  of  feet  of  space  where  the  sun- 
light can  never  enter,  they  are  nothing  but  germ- 
infested  death  traps. 

I  say  it  deliberately:  no  one  can  live  in  a  modern 
city  of  any  size,  with  its  indoor  life,  its  stench,  its 
gassy,  smoky  air,  and  live  anywhere  near  his  normal 
years;  it  is  simply  slow  suicide,  and  not  so  slow  at 
that. 

We  are  paying  an  awful  price  for  this  so-called 
civilization  of  ours, — a  price  in  human  life  that  is  not 
to  be  reckoned  from  the  long  lists  of  murders,  acci- 
dents, and  victims  of  war  and  disaster,  so  much  as 
from  the  shortening  of  the  normal  years  that  we  all 
ought  to  live. 

You  can't  possibly  live  and  work  in  stuffy,  re- 
stricted quarters  and  have  an  abundance  of  life  and 
vital  force.  You  can  not  occupy  a  little  "two  by  twice'' 
office  in  a  modern  skyscraper  or  a  beautiful  mansion 
near  a  city  and  escape  the  penalty  of  the  law  of  nature, 


56          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

for  around  you  is  the  seething  city  air,  full  of  dust  and 
smoke  and  foul  odors  and  death. 

The  sooner  you,  as  an  individual,  learn  that  the 
normal,  rational  place  for  man  to  live  is  out  in  the  open 
air,  and  that  if  compelled  to  work  inside,  his  inside 
surroundings  should  be  as  much  open  to  the  air  and 
"outside"  as  they  can  be,  and  that  the  proper  way  to 
sleep  is  with  your  head  outdoors,  in  an  outdoor  bed- 
room (or  this  impossible,  with  windows  wide  open 
alway),  the  sooner  you  will  commence  to  store  extra 
vitality  for  the  days  when  you  have  past  the  zenith  of 
your  physical  career  and  started  on  the  downward 
decline. 

While  it  is  important  that  a  home  should  have 
conveniences,  a  modern  system  of  lighting,  heating, 
hot  and  cold  water,  bath,  etc.,  it  is  far  more  important 
that  it  should  have  lots  of  pure  air  all  the  time,  and 
that  every  room  should  have  sunlight.  There  should 
be  no  dark  closets  or  halls.  The  ideal  house  of  the 
future  will  be  made  of  glass,  or  largely  of  glass,  and 
so  that  every  room  can  be  frequently  washed  from 
cellar  to  garret,  not  only  the  floors,  but  the  walls  and 
ceilings  as  well. 

In  this  matter  of  house-building  we  have  certainly 
been  doing  a  lot  of  experimenting,  from  the  birds' 
nests  and  caves  of  primitive  man,  the  skin  tents  of  the 
Indians,  the  snow  houses  of  the  Esquimaux,  the  adobe 
houses  of  the  Mexicans,  the  stone  structures  of  the 
ancients,  to  the  steel-frame,  fireproof  buildings  of  to- 
day, but  we  have  still  got  another  guess  coming.  From 
the  standpoint  of  health  the  modern  city  is  "impos- 
sible"— and  some  day  people  will  think  more  of  keep- 


A  MANSION  OR  A  HOVEL  57 

ing  their  body  in  a  healthy  state  and  prolonging  its 
life  than  they  will  of  making  money. 

Another  thing :  the  people  who  are  now  forced  by 
economic  necessity  to  work  long  hours  in  crowded, 
poorly  ventilated,  unsanitary  shops  and  factories  are 
commencing  to  understand  that  these  conditions  are 
not  necessary,  and  that  they  can,  by  cooperative  action, 
be  changed,  and  they  are  not  going  to  stand  for  this 
program  much  longer.  The  right  to  "life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness"  has  not  been  safeguarded  by 
modern  commercialism,  which  has  failed  to  construct 
either  sanitary  shops  or  homes  for  the  workers,  and 
even  the  master  class  must  suffer  from  the  general 
contagion  and  contamination,  though  they  are  able  to 
escape  much  of  it  by  taking  to  their  summer  resorts 
and  woodland  retreats. 

It  is  not  the  masters  about  whom  the  writer  is  con- 
cerned, but  the  great  masses  of  the  common  people  who 
are  not  really  living,  but  are  existing  under  an  environ- 
ment that  can  yet  be  called  "hostile,"  an  environment 
that  fails  to  shelter  them  properly,  and  at  the  same 
time  provide  the  necessary  fresh  air,  without  which  the 
human  organism  can  not  live  its  normal  lifetime. 

Between  a  mansion  in  the  heart  of  the  city's  stench 
and  a  shack  in  the  woods,  the  preference  is  in  favor  of 
the  shack — but  there  should  be  no  necessity  of  a  choice 
between  either  of  them.  The  race  will  yet  solve  the 
problem  of  living  a  normal  human  life  without 
reverting  to  savagery,  but  it  can  not  solve  this  problem 
by  forming  congested  groups,  such  as  our  modern 
cities,  neither  is  the  isolated  rural  dwelling  the  solution. 

Thank  goodness,  there  is  still  plenty  of  outside 


58 


HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 


room,  and  when  we  get  really  sensible,  we  will  quit 
crowding  and  smothering  the  life  out  of  each  other. 

In  the  meantime,  spend  as  much  time  outdoors  as 
you  possibly  can, — and  spend  it  where  there  are  flow- 
ers and  birds  and  trees  and  fresh  air, — fresh  with  the 
scent  of  the  roses  or  the  new-mown  hay  or  the  verdant 
foliage ;  or  in  the  winter  spend  it  in  the;  snowdrifts,  if 
necessary;  but  spend  it  outside  some  place,  though  it 
be  in  your  own  back  yard  or  on  a  tenement  roof. 

It  is  about  time  the  human  race  crawled  out  of  their 
holes  into  the  sunlight. 


CHAPTER  VII 

There  is,  perhaps,  nothing  that  has  been  carried  to 
a  greater  extreme  of  tomfoolery  than  this  question  of 
how  to  keep  the  muscles  of  the  body  active  and  alive. 

The  caged  animal  solves  this  problem  by  walking 
back  and  forth  in  his  cage.  Possibly  if  he  had  dumb- 
bells he  would  use  them,  or  he  might  be  induced  to 
work  some  kind  of  "apparatus,"  but  even  if  he  could 
be  trained  to  do  this,  I  doubt  very  much  whether  his 
problem  would  be  solved  better  than  he  attempts  to 
solve  it  by  his  restless  walking. 

No  better  exercise  has  been  invented  than  walking, 
unless  it  is  running.  The  "physical  strainer"  who 
spends  his  time  in  some  stuffy  room  going  through  a 
lot  of  fool  contortions,  when  he  might  take  a  brisk 
hour's  walk  out  in  the  open  air,  may  succeed  in  raising 
"bumps  of  muscles"  on  his  carcass,  but  this  does  not 
necessarily  mean  that  he  has  increased  his  vitality  or 
lengthened  his  life. 

Here  is  the  idea :  one  thing  that  is  abnormal  can  not 
be  corrected  by  adding  another  abnormal  and  unnat- 
ural thing  to  it. 


60         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

The  people  who  live  an  indoor,  inactive  life,  that 
so  many  live;  the  office  workers  (who  frequently  work 
the  other  workers),  and  the  ladies  and  gents  who  don't 
need  to  work  at  all,  may  hope  to  escape  the  penalty  of 
their  inactivity  along  productive  lines  by  resorting  to 
"artificial"  work.  They  may  take  the  "absent  work" 
treatment;  that  is,  they  may  bend  their  weak  backs 
and  grasp  an  imaginary  weight  and  lift  it  above  their 
heads,  but  it  isn't  half  the  real  exercise  that  a  ditch- 
digger  gets  by  actually  throwing  a  shovelful  of  dirt 
up  on  the  bank ;  neither  is  it  as  dignified,  for  the  ditch- 
digger  is  doing  something  useful  while  this  "absent 
worker"  is  simply  trying  to  fool  himself,  and  succeed- 
ing admirably. 

There  is  nothing  like  the  real  thing.  No  man  or 
woman  who  is  not  physically  injured  and  thus  incapa- 
citated, should  go  through  life  without  actually  doing 
useful  physical  labor.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that 
every  man  should  be  a  ditch-digger;  in  fact,  I  do  not 
believe  in  any  man  doing  this  kind  of  labor,  that  can 
be  performed  by  machinery  better.  I  have  no  objec- 
tion at  all  to  a  machine  taking  the  place  of  a  man; 
what  I'm  kicking  about  is  this  idea  of  a  man  making 
a  machine  of  himself. 

Some  day  a  lot  of  people  are  going  to  wake  up  and 
realize  that  this  idea  of  forcing  part  of  the  people  to 
do  all  the  useful  productive  labor,  while  another  part 
does  no  labor  at  all,  has  resulted  in  great  injury  to 
both.  The  manual  laborers  being  forced  to  do  much 
more  than  their  rightful  share,  and  much  more  than 
they  ought  to  do,  drain  their  vitality  and  shorten  their 
lives,  while  the  so-called  "brain  workers"  by  doing  no 


WORK  VS.  ATHLETICS  61 

work,  suffer  from  the  lack  of  healthful  physical  ex- 
ercise. 

Every  man  and  woman  should  be  both  a  brain 
worker  and  a  manual  worker,  and  until  a  system  of 
industry  is  worked  out  that  combines  the  two, — and 
this  is  altogether  possible, — we  will  have  overworked 
and  underworked  human  beings ;  and  the  underworked 
will  probably  continue  to  devise  ways  and  means  of 
getting  their  normal  exercise  in  more  or  less  abnormal 
fashions. 

Under  present  conditions  I  shall  not  blame  any  one 
for  not  wanting  to  go  down  in  the  ditch,  so  to  speak. 
Say  what  we  wish  about  the  "horny-handed  sons  of 
toil,"  we  all  know  that  this  is  but  political  buncombe, 
and  that  the  man  who  does  useful  hard  manual  labor 
today  is  looked  down  upon  by  the  brain  workers,  as 
they  in  turn  are  scorned  by  the  few  who  have  succeeded 
in  getting  out  of  all  work  and  are  living  on  the  backs 
of  the  many  (in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  old 
Mother  Nature  is  not  going  to  permit  that  sort  of 
thing  to  go  on  indefinitely,  and  sometime  they  are  go- 
ing to  get  an  awful  bump). 

If  you  really  are  a  "brain  worker,"  don't  continue 
to  work  your  alleged  brain  for  "exercise,"  by  lifting 
tons  of  imaginary  nothing.  If  you  want  to  lift,  go 
right  out  in  the  open  air  some  place  and  lift  something 
real;  there  is  many  a  tired,  fagged-out  working  man 
who  would  be  pleased  to  have  you  "spell"  him  for  a 
time — it  woudn't  take  you  long  to  get  all  you  want  of 
it.  But  if  you  refuse  to  do  this,  and  you  are  convinced 
that  you  need  exercise,  then  get  it  in  some  sensible 
fashion. 


62         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

As  before  stated,  walking  is  one  of  the  very  best 
forms  of  physical  exercise.  Don't  drag  along  one  foot 
after  another,  but  strike  a  good  brisk  pace,  breathing 
copiously,  and  hike  for  the  country  as  fast  as  your  legs 
will  carry  you. 

At  least  once  a  day  your  entire  system  should  be 
vitalized  by  some  exercise  that  will  send  the  blood 
tingling  through  your  veins,  and  a  little  vigorous  "run 
on  the  bank" — sand  bank — will  accomplish  this  trick 
in  fine  order,  and  won't  cost  you  a  cent  for  "apparatus" 
either. 

Outdoor  games  are  good;  but  here,  again,  don't 
take  the  "absent"  treatment.  I  never  could  understand 
how  people  get  so  much  joy  out  of  seeing  the  "other 
fellow"  play  a  game, — the  fan  is  a  joke  to  me.  If 
there  is  anything  "doing,"  I  want  to  be  one  of  the 
doers,  not  sit  around  like  a  hump  on  a  log  and  yell  my 
fool  head  off  watching  the  "other  fellow"  have  a  good 
time  out  on  the  diamond — that  is,  I  suppose  they  have 
a  good  time,  though  I  surmise  that  this  all  play  and  no 
work  is  as  bad  for  "Jack"  as  the  idea  of  all  work  and 
no  play.  You  can't  commercialize  sport  without  tak- 
ing the  sport  out  of  it. 

This  is  just  another  evidence  of  the  absurdity  of 
our  present  way  of  doing  things.  Some  fellows 
get  all  of  the  play  in  such  large  "chunks"  that  it  makes 
"work"  out  of  it,  while  the  rest  of  us  don't  get  a 
chance  to  bat  a  ball,  or  play  tennis,  or  play  at  all, — we 
just  sit  around  and  watch,  and  sometimes  even  pay 
good  money  to  do  that. 

I'd  like  to  see  the  "professional  sport"  driven  out 
of  business,  and  a  new  era  inaugurated  where  all  the 


WORK  VS.  ATHLETICS  63 

people  would  have  a  chance  to  play  healthful  outdoor 
games.  Every  city,  town,  and  school  district  should 
have  its  public  playgrounds,  and  every  citizen  should 
be  something  of  an  amateur  athlete  at  putting  the  shot, 
jumping,  running,  ball  playing,  or  something.  These 
playgrounds  should  be  either  grass  covered,  sprinkled 
or  oiled,  so  no  player  would  breathe  dust,  the  great 
destroyer  of  human  life. 

Between  honest,  hard,  manual  labor,  under  right 
conditions,  and  walking,  running,  and  healthful  out- 
door sports  the  body  can  get  plenty  of  normal  exercise 
without  apparatus  of  any  kind,  and  without  studying 
out  some  new  kind  of  "motion"  to  keep  your  liver 
working.  Just  be  natural  in  your  exercise  and  you 
will  make  no  mistake,  though  special  exercises  may  be 
devised  for  special  cases  of  disease,  and  are  here 
proper  and  far  better  than  "medicine." 

Much  of  what  passes  for  physical  training  is  sim- 
ply physical  straining;  it  is  the  using  up  of  surplus 
vitality  that  should  be  used  in  old  age.  It's  all  right 
to  be  strong,  but  there  is  such  a  thing  as  being  too 
strong ;  any  good  healthy  billy  goat  is  a  proof  of  that, 
and  the  early  demise  of  many  of  our  professional 
athletes  is  another  proof. 

The  muscles  should  be  soft,  flexible,  and  evenly 
developed ;  hard,  "bunchy"  muscles  are  not  desirable, 
and  herein  is  the  danger  in  the  usual  methods  of  spe- 
cial training.  Walking  is  a  perfect  exercise.  Horse- 
back riding  is  fine — for  the  horse,  gives  him  just  the 
exercise  he  needs — and  is  also  good  for  the  man,  but 
not  so  good  as  walking,  but  it  beats  staying  inside  and 
punching  a  bag  or  pulling  an  "imaginary"  row-boat 


64         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

across  an  "imaginary"  lake;  even  automobiling  beats 
that,  especially  so  if  you  are  the  driver  and  can  suc- 
ceed in  occasionally  bursting  a  tire.  There  are  some 
kinds  of  "blow-outs"  that  are  not  altogether  pleasant 
— but  they  are  very  good  for  weak  backs. 

In  conclusion,  take  this  as  good  advice:  get  out  in 
the  open  air  as  much  as  you  possibly  can  and  walk 
several  miles  every  day,  not  forgetting  to  breathe 
copiously,  and  you  will  never  feel  the  need  of  "appa- 
ratus" or  special  instructions  about  bobbing  up  and 
down  or  wiggling  sidewise  or  anything  of  that  sort. 
Or  play  games,  for  it  is  natural  for  men  to  play 
games;  if  you  don't  think  so,  watch  the  monkejs, — 
and  this  isn't  intended  as  a  reflection  on  your  ancestors. 
If  men  came  from  monkeys  (which  I  do  not  believe), 
they  have  come  a  long  ways  from  them,  and  it 
wouldn't  hurt  them  much  to  retrace  some  of  their 
steps.  I  consider  that  the  poor  monkey  is  very  often 
abused  by  this  common  insinuation ;  it  is  not  fair,  and 
I  hereby  cast  my  hat  in  the  ring  as  the  monkeys' 
champion.  Until  men  live  as  naturally  as  monkeys 
do,  they  have  no  right  to  boast  of  any  superiority,  and 
until  they  straighten  out  their  economic  relations  and 
divide  the  work  so  that  each  will  do  some  healthful 
manual  labor,  human  beings  have  some  things  yet  to 
learn  from  their  little  brothers  who  live  in  the  woods, 
and  who  never  dream  of  monopolizing  the  cocoanut 
crop  or  building  fences  around  nature's  food  supply. 


rw^  i      A        •  •inv/i     i 

Iramecl  Animals 
or the 

ww  ^i 

Human  ohow 


CHAPTER  VIII 

If  we  will  give  a  very  little  careful  thought  to  the 
subject,  we  will  soon  see  that  most  everything  we  do 
is  more  or  less  a  matter  of  habit.  Any  one  can  eat 
in  the  dark,  with  a  sharp  knife  at  that  and  never  cut 
his  mouth.  For  some  years  we  have  cultivated  this 
habit  of  finding  our  mouth ;  it  is  one  of  the  very  first 
we  acquire,  but  it  is  "acquired."  I  have  watched  with 
amusement  a  baby  trying  to  find  his  own  mouth, — his 
mouth,  at  first,  is  better  at  finding  things  than  his 
hands. 

Children  often  learn  to  suck  their  thumb.  I  have 
a  sister  who  held  on  to  this  habit  for  years,  in  fact 
after  she  was  married  she  could  occasionally  be  caught 
sucking  her  thumb — silly,  wasn't  it! 

You  have  heard  of  people  biting  their  finger  nails, 
or  pulling  out  their  hair,  or  some  other  foolish  thing, 
and  you  have  said,  "Why  don't  they  stop  it?"  But  if 
I  should  suggest  something  that  you  have  been  doing, 
or  you  should  turn  the  tables  on  me  and  tell  me  of 
some  peculiar  habit  of  mine,  we  would  both  find  that 
it  isn't  so  easy  to  stop  a  habit  as  one  might  suppose. 

Many  habits  are  harmless;  they  simply  open  one 


66         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

to  ridicule,  or  make  one  an  object  of  pity,  or  furnish 
a  topic  for  discusison  between  people  who  never  rise 
to  the  point  of  talking  about  anything  really  worth 
while.  I  suppose  one  could  suck  one's  thumb,  occa- 
sionally, until  one  was  gray-headed,  and  still  have  a 
perfectly  good  thumb,  and  be  a  good  sucker — and  I 
don't  know  as  it  is  any  person's  particular  business 
but  the  party  affected  or  effected. 

There  are  some  habits,  however,  that  are  positively 
injurious,  and  the  sooner  we  discover  these  and  eradi- 
cate them  the  better  it  will  be  for  ourselves  and  the 
race. 

I  could  mention  a  number  of  bad  habits  that  would 
be  admitted  as  bad  by  most  of  my  readers  without 
any  argument  being  necessary:  say  drinking  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  or  smoking  opium — you  would  say,  "Of 
course  they  are  bad!"  These,  probably,  are  not  your 
bad  habits;  you  see  them  in  the  "other  fellow,"  and 
you  are  very  frank  in  your  analysis  of  the  other 
fellow's  bad  habits. 

But  suppose  I  tell  you  that  eating,  as  commonly 
indulged  in,  is  a  bad  habit,  you  would  exclaim,  "Pre- 
posterous, unthinkable,  ridiculous!"  And  you  would 
at  once  start  in  to  tell  me  about  the  Dutchman  who  had 
the  horse  that  he  was  training  to  live  without  hay  or 
oats,  and  just  before  he  got  him  completely  trained 
the  horse  up  and  died, — and  then  you  would  laugh, 
Ha,  Ha!  just  like  that,  and  feel  immensely  pleased. 

You,  perhaps,  did  not  notice  that  I  said  "as  com- 
monly indulged  in,"  and  if  you  will  read  it  again,  it 
won't  sound  quite  so  bad.  But  we  will  come  to  this 
later. 


GOOD  AND  BAD  HABITS  67 

As  for  drinking,  we  will  also  come  to  that  later  on, 
though  I  wish  to  quote  here  an  eminent  English  phy- 
sician on  this  subject  (you  will  note  I  occasionally 
quote  physicians  if  they  are  in  line  with  my  own 
views,  otherwise  never — I  am  just  like  other  people  in 
such  matters,  excepting  that  I  am  willing  to  admit  it). 
Dr.  Johnson  says :  "I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
more  than  half  of  the  disease  that  embitters  the  middle 
and  later  part  of  life  is  due  to  avoidable  errors  in 
diet;  and  more  disease  is  brought  on  by  erroneous 
habits  of  eating  than  from  habitual  use  of  alcoholic 
drink."  (Quoted  from  Milwaukee  Health  Depart- 
ment Bulletin,  a  very  interesting  and  helpful  little 
publication  sent  free  to  all  Milwaukee  citizens  who 
ask  for  it — great  idea,  that!) 

Now  let  us  take  up  one  of  these  "habits"  that  is 
common,  and  much  defended — the  smoking  habit.  It 
has  been  stated  that  the  discoverers  of  America  took 
the  report  back  to  the  fatherland  that  they  found  na- 
tives who  were  "smoking  like  devils."  The  fact  is, 
that  most  of  the  adopted  Americans  very  soon  acquired 
the  habit  and  have  also  been  "smoking  like  devils" 
ever  since. 

That  this  is  an  acquired  habit  no  one  will  deny. 
That  nature  rebels  at  the  point  of  acquisition,  all  who 
have  gone  through  the  ordeal  will  admit.  There  is  a 
time  after  the  boy  smokes  his  first  cigar  that  he  feels 
very  much  discouraged,  like  "throwing  up"  every- 
thing, so  to  speak.  But  he  knows  that  Pa  and  Uncle 
George  both  persisted  and  learned  how,  and  so  he 
heroically  sticks  to  his  job,  acquires  the  habit,  and 
lives  to  tell  about  it,  jokingly.  And  then,  when  he 


68          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

grows  up  and  has  a  little  boy  of  his  own,  he  licks  him 
soundly  for  doing  the  same  thing  he  did  when  a  boy. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  smoker  who  would  not  tell  you 
that  he  could  "smoke  or  let  it  alone,  just  as  he 
pleased"?  And  this  is  so,  perhaps,  for  he  generally 
"pleases  to  smoke,"  and  seldom  "pleases  to  let  it 
alone."  And  it  is  really  so,  in  a  deeper  sense,  in  that 
the  soul  of  man  can  do  whatever  it  starts  out  to  do, 
given  time  enough  to  accomplish  the  task.  But,  oh, 
what  a  task  it  is  for  a  person  who  has  fully  acquired 
the  nicotine  habit,  either  smoking,  chewing,  dipping,  or 
snuffing.  To  unfasten  its  grip  from  their  body  re- 
quires a  degree  of  grit  and  determination  that  few 
slaves  of  the  nicotine  habit  possess.  Any  victim  of 
the  tobacco  habit  who  does  not  believe  in  hell  can 
very  soon  convince  himself  that  there  is  such  a  place, 
and  the  location  of  it  will  be' very  close  by;  all  he  has 
to  do  is  to  stop  his  habit — and  that's  much  easier  said 
than  done. 

"But  why  stop  it?"  the  nicotine  slave  remarks, 
"it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me;  it  soothes  my  tired 
nerves;  it  makes  the  hard  places  soft,  and  helps  to 
make  life  worth  living.  Why  stop  it?  Besides,  it 
don't  hurt  me  in  the  least.  Of  course,  I  know  what 
'tobacco  heart'  is,  and  how  old  Bill  Jones  died  of  a 
smokers'  cancer  and  all  that,  but  I  am  moderate. 
Why,  just  look  at  Farmer  Brown;  he  has  smoked  all 
his  life,  and  he  is  hale  and  hearty  at  eighty  years  old ; 
and  there  is  Peterson  and  Jacobs  and  Ostrander,  they 
all  smoke  and  chew  and  drink,  and  yet  they  are  alive 
and  seemingly  healthy,  and  well  along  in  years." 

Sounds  reasonable,  doesn't  it? 


GOOD  AND  BAD  HABITS 


69 


Death  lurks  in  every  glass. 


70         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

But  for  all  that,  here  is  the  explanation  and  the 
warning : 

The  human  system  is  built  on  the  "surplus  energy" 
plan.  For  instance,  the  lungs  have  many  cubic  inches 
of  capacity  that  are  not  used  on  ordinary  occasions. 
Sad  to  say,  some  people  never  use  their  full  lung 
capacity,  and  this  means  that  the  normal  lungs  are 
weakened  by  non-use.  You  are  not  supposed,  how- 
ever, to  use  your  full  capacity  in  ordinary  breathing; 
the  surplus  is  for  an  emergency,  when,  for  instance, 
you  have  to  run  for  your  life.  Now  the  savages  had 
to  make  this  "run  for  life"  quite  frequently,  and 
there  is  no  evidence  that  they  were  ever  bothered  by 
the  white  plague;  in  fact,  all  the  "plagues"  in  those 
days  were  black.  Civilized  man  has  protected  himself 
to  some  extent  on  this  "running"  business;  one's  life 
these  days  is  comparatively  safe  from  physical  as- 
sault unless  one  has  to  make  a  short  sprint  occasionally 
to  avoid  a  passing  automobile.  The  human  race  today 
is  not  a  "running  race" ;  man  seldom  runs ;  in  spite 
of  the  idea  that  we  are  hitting  a  pretty  high  pace, 
we  are  walking  through  it  all  the  time. 

Every  organ  has  a  surplus  power,  a  reserve 
force.  The  strength  of  the  average  man,  when 
taxed  to  its  utmost,  is  really  marvelous.  Perhaps  you 
have  heard  of  the  wonderful  stunts  a  man  will  do  in 
cases  of  excitement, — say  a  fire, — when  he  will  lift 
and  move  things  that  he  otherwise  couldn't  budge. 
The  strength  of  a  crazy  person  is  phenomenal ;  it  is 
concentrated  energy,  because  the  mind  of  a  crazy  per- 
son is  fixed  on  just  the  one  thing  he  is  doing,  and  he 
can  muster  all  his  power  at  that  point. 


GOOD  AND  BAD  HABITS  71 

Now  this  is  what  I'm  driving  at:  I  want  you  to 
know  that  you  have  "surplus  energy"  that  is  not  used 
on  ordinary  occasions ;  it  is  really  "stored  energy"  that 
carries  you  forward  after  you  have  crossed  the  me- 
ridian of  life  and  have  struck  the  down  grade. 

Up  to  a  certain  time  the  body  continually  stores 
this  surplus  energy;  for  a  considerable  period  it  holds 
its  own,  and  then  comes  the  autumn  days  when  the 
surplus  should  be  gradually  used  up  in  a  ripe  old  age. 

Every  wrong  habit,  every  broken  law  of  nature, 
every  excess,  extracts  its  tribute  from  the  surplus 
vitality. 

In  the  case  of  a  normal  manifestation,  such  as  a 
run,  the  surplus  energy  is  not  depleted ;  while  the  full 
capacity  of  the  body  is  brought  into  play,  it  gains 
strength  by  this  full  use.  A  good  brisk  run,  with 
copious  breathing  through  the  nose,  is  far  better  to 
tone  up  the  system  and  send  the  blood  tingling  with 
new  life  through  every  part  of  the  body,  than  all  the 
medicine  in  Christendom. 

But  there  are  many  "runs"  that  are  made  on  the 
system  that  simply  enter  into  the  reserve  storehouse 
and  sap  the  surplus  strength  without  giving  anything 
in  return. 

Oh,  no,  Mr.  Smoker,  you  don't  feel  the  drain! 
The  surplus  supplies  it  readily.  But  for  all  that  you 
are  using  up  your  old  age  and  burning  your  candle 
at  both  ends. 

You  may  say  it  does  not  harm  you  to  smoke  or 
drink  or  take  morphine  or  dope  coffee,  but  be  not 
deceived — "whatsoever  you  sow,  that  shall  you  also 
reap."  The  law  is  inexorable,  the  penalty  is  not  to  be 


72          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

escaped,  and  the  Grim  Reaper  will  mow  you  down 
many  years  before  your  allotted  time.  No  matter  how 
many  doctors  you  call  in  to  try  and  cheat  old  Mother 
Nature,  they  can  fool  no  one  but  themselves,  and 
you — and  the  undertaker  is  certain  of  his  job,  and  the 
coffin  trust  has  the  last  whack  at  you. 

It's  very  easy  to  blow  a  few  dozen  years  of  your 
life  into  soothing  rings  of  tobacco  smoke,  but  is  it 
really  a  sensible  thing  to  do?  And  this  is  but  one  of 
the  many  habits  that  tend  to  shorten  life  by  using  the 
surplus  energy  and  by  incapacitating  the  body  to  store 
energy. 

It's  not  an  easy  thing  to  break  a  habit,  but  it's  a 
mighty  easy  thing  for  a  habit  to  "break"  you,  both 
financially,  which  is  comparatively  unimportant,  and 
physically,  which  is  of  great  importance  and  some  day 
will  be  so  considered. 

Among  smokers  there  is  a  general  feeling  of  "I 
don't  care"  in  regard  to  this  entire  matter.  Though 
some  men  knew  that  every  puff  of  their  cigar  would 
take  a  day  from  their  lives,  they  would  puff  on  com- 
placently and  say,  "What  of  it  ?  life  is  of  small  conse- 
quence anyway!"  And  they  would  not  understand 
that  this  very  nicotine  habit  that  deadens  their  nerve 
sensation  would  dictate  this  answer. 

The  normal  man  holds  to  life  tenaciously.  When 
the  body  is  in  a  healthy  state,  the  mind  is  apt  to  be 
healthy,  and  to  view  the  world  as  full  of  latent  possi- 
bilities and  unexplored  resources.  Health  and  Hope 
walk  hand  in  hand. 

The  ethical  mind  sees  in  life  a  vast  opportunity 
for  unfoldment  and  character-building.  It  views  life 


GOOD  AND  BAD   HABITS  73 

as  an  intellectual  battlefield,  and  bravely  faces  up 
stream  and  against  the  tide. 

Habits  are  good  and  bad,  the  good  ones  are  the 
result  of  earnest  striving  towards  the  light,  the  ever 
outreaching  of  the  soul  for  knowledge,  and  the  appli- 
cation of  this  knowledge  to  life  itself.  Bad  habits  are 
the  result  of  inactivity,  the  acceptance  of  things  as 
they  are,  without  question ;  the  result  of  conformity  to 
environment,  instead  of  struggle  against  it,  for  all  en- 
vironment is  in  a  degree  "hostile,"  and  no  soul  that 
goes  down  stream  is  making  real  progress. 

To  know  a  thing  is  wrong  and  to  continue  doing 
it  is  to  acknowledge  you  are  licked  without  even  a 
fight 

To  continue  doing  a  thing  just  because  you  are  in 
the  "habit  of  it"  is  to  refuse  to  make  progress,  to  drift 
with  the  tide,  though  the  word  might  well  be  spelled 
"tied,"  for  one  held  in  the  clutches  of  a  bad  habit  is 
truly  tied,  bound,  and  often  gagged. 

The  best  proof  that  one  is  in  the  clutches  of  habit 
is  the  fight  one  will  put  up  in  its  defense.  It  is  right 
at  this  point  that  the  same  fight  put  up  against  the 
habit  would  conquer  it.  Later  the  victim  of  habit 
gradually  understands  its  debilitating  and  damning 
influence  and  power  over  him,  but  then  the  habit  has 
sunk  its  fangs  into  his  very  vitals  and  almost  a  super- 
human effort  is  needed  to  shake  it  off,  but  the  victory 
is  worth  the  effort. 

From  the  broader  viewpoint  life  is  not  a  narrow 
span  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave;  it  reaches 
out  into  a  vast  eternity  of  possibilities, — and  would 
you  limp  through  future  centuries  of  manifestation, 


74         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

bound  and  gagged  and  helpless  because  in  the  grip 
of  habit,  or  will  you  rise  and  fight  a  good  fight  and 
become  the  master  of  yourself? 

From  the  narrow  viewpoint,  all  there  is  to  life  is 
its  present  manifestation:  today  we  eat,  drink,  and 
make  merry;  tomorrow  we  die.  Yet  even  from  this 
narrow  point  of  vision  the  one  who  has  the  most  abun- 
dant life  lives  most,  and  one  can  not  have  abundant 
life  without  health,  and  one  can  not  have  health  and 
be  the  slave  of  bad  habits. 

Even  though  there  are  no  open  doors  to  the  tomb 
and  the  soul  sleeps  through  eternity  in  its  "windowless 
palace  of  rest,"  yet  is  it  worth  while  to  live  right,  in 
accordance  with  nature's  laws,  that  one  may  have  the 
fullest  expression  in  the  physical  realm  of  which  the 
body  is  capable.  From  the  physical  standpoint  there  is 
no  joy  that  can  equal  the  normal,  healthful  expression 
of  the  physical  organism  along  right  lines. 

A  bad  habit  is  as  a  fence  that  shuts  one  out  of  the 
really  good  things,  though  it  is  admitted  that  it  is 
hard  for  the  soul  in  the  grip  of  a  habit  to  comprehend 
this  viewpoint. 

A  bad  habit  is  as  a  weight  that  holds  one  down  to 
a  lower  plane  of  expression,  and  trends  ever  to  drag 
one  still  further  down. 

Bad  habits  are  hard  to  cure  in  proportion  to  their 
long  continuance,  and  the  weakness  of  the  character  of 
their  possessor. 

Many  bad  habits  are  acquired  because  of  lack  of 
understanding  and  without  any  knowledge  of  their 
baneful  influence.  With  many  people  when  knowledge 
comes  in  at  the  front  door,  the  bad  habit  is  imme- 


GOOD  AND  BAD  HABITS  75 

diately  kicked  out  at  the  back.  Many  bad  habits  of 
eating,  breathing,  etc.,  may  well  be  classed  here.  We 
have  had  very  little  chance  to  learn  how  to  live  right ; 
the  "doctors"  have  been  so  busy  "doctoring"  that  they 
haven't  had  time  to  tell  us  how  to  keep  well,  nor  could 
they  reasonably  be  expected  to  do  so,  and  we  haven't 
taken  the  trouble  to  find  out  these  things  for  ourselves, 
which  is  the  sensible  thing  to  do. 

Many  bad  habits  are  wilfully  acquired,  and  wilfully 
retained,  even  after  full  knowledge  of  their  "badness" 
is  present.  In  such  cases  the  problem  is  not  an  easy 
one  for  an  outsider  to  solve;  in  fact,  the  individual 
himself  must  ever  be  the  arbiter  of  his  own  fate. 

Habits  are  not  to  be  cured  in  a  day,  even  when 
one  earnestly  desires  to  be  cured,  for  a  cure  can  not 
be  said  to  be  effected  until  every  vestige  of  "desire" 
has  been  conquered,  and  that's  no  easy  matter. 

Here  is  the  psychology  of  it.  Do  not  wait  till  the 
desire  is  on,  until  every  nerve  and  fiber  of  your  being 
seems  to  be  demanding  the  particular  indulgence  that 
you  are  striving  to  overcome.  Commence  at  once  to 
fill  your  mind  with  "counter  suggestions."  Fill  it  with 
firm  resolves  backed  up  by  good  arguments  and  solid 
facts  why  you  will  no  longer  continue  to  be  a  slave. 
Fill  it  full  of  loathing  for  this  habit.  And  when  the 
habit  tries  to  storm  the  citadel  of  your  soul,  fight  from 
the  very  start  by  refusing  to  think  about  it.  Fill  your 
mind  with  SOMETHING  ELSE.  Do  something,  play 
a  fiddle,  dance  a  jig,  sing  a  song,  or  get  out  in  the  open 
and  run,  run  like  the  very  devil  himself  is  after  you 
(and  this  is  the  "realest"  devil  you'll  ever  meet),  and 
keep  running  till  you  have  conquered. 


76 


HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 


The  foregoing  seems  simple,  but  it  is  the  key  to 
the  lock  that  chains  you  to  a  bad  habit,  for  "as  a  man 
thinketh,  so  is  he,"  and  you  are  only  bound  to  physical 
habits  because  you  are  mentally  bound.  Refuse  men- 
tally to  entertain  a  bad  habit  and  you  become  the  mas- 
ter of  it.  Many  people  in  the  grip  of  some  bad  habit 
lose  courage  and  cease  to  fight ;  they  feel  that  it  is  not 
possible  for  them  to  conquer  it.  This  is  a  serious  mis- 
take. There  is  no  stage  where  all  hope  is  forever  lost. 
The  quickened  soul  can  rise  triumphant  over  every  ob- 
stacle that  impedes  its  pathway.  With  some  who  still 
have  strength  of  character  the  battle  may  be  easily 
won,  with  others  it  may  take  weeks  and  months  and 
years,  but  with  every  effort  made  towards  a  given 
goal  one  makes  progress,  just  in  proportion  to  the 
effort  expended. 


CHAPTER  IX 

To  say  that  there  is  no  use  for  medicine  would 
probably  be  making  an  extreme  statement  that  will  not 
be  seriously  considered  for  perhaps  another  century. 
To  say  that  the  habitual  use  of  medicine  is  very  harm- 
ful to  the  physical  organism,  and  that  most  medicines 
are  without  any  real  "curative"  properties,  is  to  state 
the  truth — whether  acceptable  or  not  to  the  "doctors" 
or  the  "patients." 

The  absurdity  to  which  this  matter  of  medicine  has 
come  may  be  surmised  when  one  goes  into  a  modern 
well-equipped  drug  store  and  notes  the  thousands  of 
bottles  of  extracts,  lotions,  and  poisons  that  are  used 
in- the  "mixing"  of  the  concoctions  that  are  put  to- 
gether "by  order  of  the  physician." 

The  man  or  woman  whose  hope  of  health  lies  in 
this  direction  is  headed  straight  for  the  grave. 

External  applications  in  case  of  wounds  or  sores 
may  at  times  be  desirable.  If  I  ran  an  old  nail  in  my 
foot,  I  would  wash  the  wound  with  some  kind  of  anti- 
septic, turpentine  is  mighty  good  for  such  purposes, 
and  the  nail  hole  should  be  enlarged  or  opened  so 
that  the  bruised  flesh  will  be  bathed.  A  poultice  made 
of  a  scraped  raw  potato,  or  piece  of  fat  pork,  should 


78          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

afterwards  be  applied.  One  of  the. best  poultices  for 
a  thing  of  this  kind  is  a  fresh  "cud"  of  chewing  to- 
bacco— it's  about  the  only  thing  that  the  stuff  is  really 
good  for.  An  injury  of  this  kind  should  be  watched 
very  carefully,  and  if  it  does  not  heal  readily  and 
there  is  any  indication  that  it  is  getting  worse,  a  good 
physician  should  be  consulted  and  the  wound  cauter- 
ized and  properly  attended  to. 

It  is  not,  however,  necessary  to  run  for  a  rag  every 
time  one  cuts  one's  finger  with  a  penknife.  The 
writer  worked  for  years  as  a  lather,  and  during  that 
time  very  frequently  cut  and  pounded  his  hands  and 
fingers  with  a  hatchet;  they  are  covered  today  with 
scars,  real  badges  of  labor.  I  soon  learned  that  the 
best  treatment  for  these  small  wounds  was  to  wash 
them  out  in  clean  water  and  then  let  them  alone. 
Nature  soon  covers  the  wound  with  a  clot  of  blood 
and  starts  the  healing  process. 

In  case  of  broken  limbs  or  serious  injury,  the  sur- 
geon should  be  at  once  consulted,  and  in  the  mean- 
time bandages  should  be  applied  that  will  stop,  as  much 
as  possible,  the  flow  of  blood  to  the  injured  part, 
clothing  loosened,  and  the  patient  made  comfortable, 
mentally  and  physically.  It  is  not  in  cases  of  accident 
where  the  body  is  apt  to  be  injured  by  treatment,  in- 
asmuch as  this  treatment  is  of  an  exterior  nature.  It 
is  when  the  "doping"  process  starts  that  the  danger 
starts,  and  it  continues  as  long  as  the  "doping"  is 
kept  up. 

Very  briefly  and  distinctly  stated,  the  writer  does 
not  believe  in  the  "curative  properties"  of  "medicine." 
The  evidence  that  it  does  not  cure  is  found  in  every 


MEDICINE,  ITS  USE  AND  ABUSE 


79 


In  nine  cases  of  sickness  out  of  ten  a  short  fast  will  put 
you  on  your  feet. 


80          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

graveyard,  and  in  the  multitude  of  sick  people  that  are 
continually  under  the  doctors'  care. 

I  do  not  even  believe  that  medicine  often  assists 
in  making  cures,  unless  it  is  in  such  cases  as  the 
patient  has  "faith"  in  it,  and  hence  it  acts  as  a  cura- 
tive "suggestion." 

In  this  last  statement  I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunder- 
stood. I  do  not  believe  in  "faith  cure,"  nor  "mind 
cure,"  except  for  such  diseases  as  are  purely  mental, 
and  there  are  many  such ;  neither  am  I  a  so-called 
"Christian  Scientist."  In  the  cure  of  any  disease,  or 
the  recovery  from  any  accident,  however,  the  mind  is 
a  very  important  factor,  and  mental  suggestion  from 
a  doctor  or  "healer"  or  friend,  and  auto-suggestion 
from  the  patient,  must  now  be  reckoned  with  as  one 
of  the  most  powerful  assistants  to  nature  in  the  heal- 
ing process. 

There  may  be  some  simple,  harmless  extracts  from 
roots  and  herbs  that  have  a  helpful  effect  in  restoring 
the  sick  or  diseased  body  to  its  normal  condition  of 
health ;  I  would  not  say  that  there  are  none  such,  tut 
it  is  questionable,  in  my  mind,  if  they  are  of  any  con- 
siderable importance. 

Now,  note  carefully  the  position  here  taken! 

Health  is  the  normal  condition  of  the  human  or- 
ganism. 

When  the  body  is  not  in  perfect  health,  there  is 
some  cause  for  the  ill  health. 

You  can  not  restore  your  body  to  perfect  health 
without  first  removing  the  cause  of  its  ill  health. 

By  removing  the  cause  of  its  ill  health,  if  this  cause 
has  not  been  too  long  standing,  nature  will  at  once 


MEDICINE.  ITS  USE  AND  ABUSE  81 

commence  to  restore  the  body  to  its  normal  condition 
of  health. 

If  the  cause  has  been  too  long  standing  and  the 
resulting  injury  too  serious,  all  the  physicians  in 
Christendom  can  not  make  good  what  nature  can  not 
make  good ;  they  may  kill  pain  by  laudanum  or  opium 
or  morphine,  but  they  can  not  cure,  nor  does  their 
"doctoring"  assist  nature  to  cure,  nor  will  it  prolong 
the  life  of  the  patient,  but  rather  help  to  hasten  the 
visit  of  the  undertaker. 

The  real  physician  will  locate  the  cause  of  ill 
health  and,  if  possible,  remove  it,  or  teach  the  patient 
how  to  remove  it,  and  after  it  is  removed,  how  to  live 
so  as  to  avoid  a  repetition  of  the  same  condition. 

Years  ago,  visiting  a  friend  in  Ohio,  I  saw  his 
cow  carrying  a  bone  in  her  mouth.  It  was  to  me  a 
very  unusual  and  comical  sight  and  I  asked  him  for 
the  explanation.  He  said :  "The  soil  here  is  lacking  in 
certain  bone-making  properties  that  the  cow  instinct- 
ively knows  or  feels  she  needs,  and  she  recognizes 
these  properties  in  the  bone  that  she  has  found."  In 
other  words,  the  cow  was  not  getting  just  the  kind  of 
food  that  answered  her  physical  requirements. 

I  anticipate  that  the  time  will  come  when  physi- 
cians, real  ones,  will  be  able  to  analyze  the  exact  phys- 
ical requirements  of  building  up  strong  bodies,  or  re- 
pairing weak  ones,  and  instead  of  writing  out  a  long 
list  of  Latin  names  of  drugs,  powders,  and  lotions  for 
the  patient  to  swallow  in  capsules  and  "doses,"  they 
will  say:  "What  you  need  is  to  eat  a  little  less  starchy 
food  and  more  muscle  food;  try  eating  raw  carrots 
(or  something)  for  a  week."  In  other  words,  they 


82 


HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 


will  prescribe  the  medicine,  if  we  can  call  it  such,  in 
its  natural  stage  in  the  food  itself. 

This  is  not  a  common,  but  a  rational  idea  of  medi- 
cine, and  the  day  will  come  when  it  will  be  seriously 
considered  by  the  teachers  whose  business  it  will  be  to 
keep  the  people  well.  In  the  meantime  you  consider 
this  seriously  right  now. 


May  we  all  get  just  what's  coming  to  us! 


-...;.-.-.  ,.-$m 
_row  cX 

Hair  On/ 

AGGDSO 

E 


CHAPTER  X 

The  spectacle  of  a  bald-headed  man  buying  a  "hair 
restorer"  from  a  bald-headed  druggist  is  one  of  the 
sights  that  must  make  the  gods  laugh  and  all  the  little 
fishes  in  the  sea  wiggle  their  tails  in  ecstacy,  but  for 
all  that,  it  is  a  thing  that  often  actually  happens. 

We  have  become  so  accustomed  to  doing  foolish 
things  that  we  do  them  without  any  appreciation  of 
the  absurdity  of  the  matter,  though  in  reality  it  is  not 
so  very  much  more  absurd  to  buy  "hair  restorer"  from 
a  bald-headed  druggist  than  from  a  "hairy"  one — you 
will  get  stung  in  the  same  place  under  either  circum- 
stance. 

The  fact  is,  the  only  way  to  buy  hair  is  to  buy  a 
wig  or  a  switch — it  doesn't  come  put  up  in  bottles. 
And  right  here  I  might  remark  in  passing,  that  the 
men  haven't  much  on  the  women  who  buy  their  hair 
in  visible  chunks  and  wads,  while  the  men  purchase 


84          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

only  a  "hope" — and  it's  just  as  "false"  as  any  rat  or 
switch  manufactured. 

Of  course,  there  is  some  good  that  may  come  from 
the  use  of  a  hair  restorer ;  it  takes  some  "rubbing"  to 
apply  it,  and  the  "rubbing"  is  all  right. 

Now  let's  apply  a  little  ordinary  "hoss  sense"  to 
this  question. 

Men  have  bald  heads,  women  don't.  What's  the 
answer  ? 

Man's  hair  is  short  and  woman's  long.  It  is  not 
found,  however,  that  cutting  the  hair  tends  to  destroy 
it,  but  rather  the  reverse.  It  is  not,  then,  that  the  hair 
of  man  is  short  that  his  head  eventually  becomes  bald, 
nor  is  it  as  many  would  like  us  to  believe,  because 
man  works  his  brain  unduly.  The  fact  is  that  we 
haven't  worked  our  brains  enough  or  we  would  have 
solved  this  problem  sooner  and  saved  our  hair. 

Here  is  the  solution  in  a  nutshell.  The  fact  that 
woman's  hair  is  long  requires  considerable  combing, 
and  the  length  and  weight  of  the  hair  itself  means  con- 
siderable pulling;  this  tends  to  agitate  the  scalp  and 
feed  the  hair  with  blood.  A  man's  hair  being  short 
needs  little  attention,  and  unless  he  is  a  married  man 
it  seldom  gets  pulled,  and  it  is  not  long  enough  to 
"pull  itself,"  so  the  scalp  is  not  agitated  and  naturally 
gets  thinner  until  it  can't  support  a  good  crop  of  hair. 

A  bald  skull  has  a  thin  skin  stretched  over  it  like 
a  drum  head ;  the  thinness  of  the  scalp  is  the  cause  of 
the  loss  of  the  hair;  you  can  rub  "ointments"  and 
"hair  food"  and  all  manner  of  dopes  and  washes  on 
such  a  scalp  and  not  help  a  bit,  except  the  good  that 
comes  from  the  rubbing. 


CARE  OF  THE  HAIR  85 

The  way  to  get  rid  of  a  bald  head  is  to  either  cut 
it  off,  or  cover  it  carefully  with  glue  and  paste  a  wig 
on  it.  I  know  this  is  not  encouraging  news  to  my 
bald-headed  readers,  but  I'm  not  getting  paid  for 
telling  them  an  untruth,  nor  because  I  know  I  can't 
raise  false  hair  on  their  heads,  will  I  raise  any  false 
hope  in  their  bosoms. 

The  following  remarks  apply  chiefly  to  those  who 
still  have  their  hair  and  who  don't  want  to  get  bald 
headed.  The  only  hope  is  that  you  at  once  start  in  to 
giving  your  scalp  vigorous  massage  treatments  and 
pull  it  frequently,  eliminating  every  loose  hair  you  can. 
Don't  worry  about  the  hairs  you  can  pull  out,  new  ones 
will  grow  in  their  place,  but  if  you  let  them  fall  out 
of  their  own  accord,  your  name  is  "baldy,"  whether 
you  like  it  or  not. 

Get  a  couple  of  good  stiff  hairbrushes  and  give 
your  head  a  very  strenuous  rubbing  until  the  scalp 
fairly  burns  and  is  red  with  the  new  blood  that  is 
called  up  by  the  extra  friction.  This  massage  will 
thicken  the  scalp  and  the  blood  will  feed  the  hair ;  but 
you  can't  feed  what  "isn't,"  and  a  bald  head  is  past 
the  feeding  stage,  unless  there  might  be  some  live 
hair  roots  that  could  be  coaxed  back. 

Another  thing  of  importance :  women  seldom  wear 
hats,  and  when  they  do,  they  are  of  some  light  material 
that  is  thoroughly  ventilated.  As  a  mere  man,  it  has 
always  been  a  mystery  to  me  how  these  "flimsy"  af- 
fairs could  cost  so  much  money,  but  aside  from  that, 
their  flimsiness  is  a  big  point  in  their  favor.  Men's 
hats  are,  as  a.  rule,  stiff  and  without  ventilation,  and 
injurious  to  the  hair,  especially  so  in  warm  weather. 


86         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

We  do  not  wear  hats  so  much  for  protection  as 
because  of  habit. 

A  man  will  wear  his  hat  out  in  the  evening  just 
the  same  as  during  the  heat  of  the  day.  Now  there 
isn't  much  danger  of  being  sunstruck  in  the  evening; 
the  hat  is  useless  then,  if  not  most  of  the  time.  At 
any  rate,  if  you  want  to  save  your  hair,  wear  a  light, 
well-ventilated  hat,  and  that  as  seldom  as  possible. 

While  it  is  true  we  seldom  see  bald-headed  women, 
a  good  many  of  them  are  traveling  the  right  road 
these  days,  and  if  you  could  see  them  minus  their 
"bought  locks,"  you'd  say  I  am  hitting  it  pretty  close. 

A  fine  head  of  hair  is  one  of  woman's  crowning 
glories — that  is,  if  it  is  natural.  But  this  thing  of 
putting  up  a  bluff  that  you  have  such  hair  is  deliberate 
falsehood — and,  mark  it  well,  every  daughter  of  Eve 
will  pay  the  penalty  for  this  deception  sooner  or  later. 
Besides  this,  it  is  robbery ;  it  robs  the  woman  who  has 
a  fine  head  of  hair,  largely  the  result  of  care,  from 
her  deserved  distinction. 

These  unnatural  additions  to  the  natural  hair  are 
not  conducive  to  a  proper  growth,  and  the  more  arti- 
ficial hair  is  worn,  the  more  it  will  have  to  be  worn, 
for  the  natural  hair  continues  to  grow  beautifully 
less  and  less,  because  the  owner  pays  more  attention 
to  combing  her  switches.  Admitted  that  the  deception 
will  pass  muster  on  us  poor  bald-headed  men,  for  all 
that  it  is  deception  and  leaves  its  scar  in  the  character, 
and  nature  will  some  day  even  the  score  some  way  or 
other,  take  that  for  granted. 

As  for  hair  dyes,  hair  oils,  and  such — steer  clear 
of  them ! 


CARE  OF  THE  HAIR  87 

I  know  of  an  old  woman  who  has  been  trying  for 
years  to  fool  people  with  regard  to  her  age  by  dye- 
ing her  gray  hair  brown.  She  hasn't  succeeded  in 
really  fooling  anybody  but  herself,  and  has  forfeited 
the  right  to  grow  old  gracefully.  Gray  hair  is  often 
beautiful,  and  is  always  appropriate  for  old  people. 
The  most  of  us  grow  gray  long  before  we  ought. 

I  also  know  a  young  woman  who  had  nice  light- 
brown  hair,  but  she  was  not  a  decided  blonde,  so  she 
"decided"  the  matter  for  herself  and  dyed  her  hair. 
She  perhaps  did  this  in  a  moment  of  thoughtlessness, 
for  since  then  she  has  thought  some  and  "decided" 
that  nature's  light-brown  hair  is  far  more  becoming 
to  her  than  the  manufactured  blond  variety,  and  now 
she  is  patiently  waiting  for  the  new  brown  hair  to 
push  the  dyed  blond  ends  out  to  the  jumping-off  place. 
It  doesn't  cost  much  to  turn  your  hair  to  peroxide 
blond,  but  it  takes  a  lot  of  courage  to  decide  to  go 
back  to  nature's  own  color  and  advertise  to  the  world 
what  a  ninny  you  once  was, — but  even  at  that  it  is 
better  than  continuing  to  be  a  ninny. 

I  have  known  bachelors  who  dyed  their  moustache 
a  nice  shining  black,  but  they  usually  either  did  not 
get  clear  down  to  the  skin,  or  else  they  got  some  of 
it  on  their  skin,  and  the  result  was  not  pleasing,  and 
every  one  knew  it  was  dyed ;  they  simply  made  an  ass 
of  themselves  and  became  a  laughing-stock  for  the 
community  at  large. 

I  have  known  old  working  men  who  dyed  their 
hair,  not  from  vanity,  but  pure  economic  necessity. 
Gray  hairs  are  no  recommendation  to  the  "boss,"  and 
these  men  in  some  way  had  to  disguise  their  age 


88         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

to  get  a  chance  to  live.  If  any  tampering  with  nature 
is  excusable,  this  perhaps  would  come  nearest  to  it,  but 
there  is  a  better  way.  If  the  workers  will  get  together, 
they  can  see  to  it  that  a  sane  industrial  order  takes  the 
place  of  the  present  haphazard  lack  of  method  and 
system,  and  then  gray-headed  men  will  not  need  to 
work  for  a  boss — and  may  wear  their  gray  hairs  ia 
honor  and  self-respect. 

In  conclusion,  keep  your  scalp  clean  with  frequent 
washing,  and  well  cultivated  with  frequent  and  vig- 
orous brushing  and  pulling,  and  open  to  the  wind  and 
the  sunshine  with  frequent  outdoor  airing — and  trust 
Allah  for  the  rest ;  for  you  have  done  all  that  mortal 
man  can  do  to  save  what  hair  you  have  left,  and  by 
good  behavior  you  can  even  hope  to  cultivate  more, 
but  this  hope  must  be  before  you  have  neglected  it  too 
long. 

If  you  already  have  a  bald  head,  cultivate  resigna- 
tion, and  learn  to  use  a  fly  swatter  gracefully,  but  don't 
waste  any  good  money  buying  hair  restorer  from  a 
bald-headed  druggist. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Time  was  when  the  human  animal  could  not  see 
anything  smaller  than  a  flea,  and  when  his  fears  were 
confined  to  beasts  and  reptiles  more  powerful  than 
himself. 

Today  we  have  subjugated  the  huge  creatures  of 
the  forest,  and,  single-handed,  our  great  and  illustrious 
St.  Theodore  has  tackled  the  very  lion  in  his  den  and 
killed  him  by  the  score;  he  has  marched  into  the 
jungle  with  more  power  than  a  million  savages,  but 
with  a  good  deal  of  the  same  instinct  and  feeling  that 
actuated  men  who  lived  in  the  age  of  tooth  and  fang. 

At  any  rate,  we  no  longer  fear  big  things. 

But  now  we  lay  awake  nights  trembling  lest  we  be 
overcome  by  some  invisible  host  of  microbes  and 
germs,  of  which  our  savage  ancestors  never  dreamed. 

And  these  germs  are  no  joke;  we  can't  see  them 
with  the  naked  eye  to  be  sure,  but  we  have  manufac 
tured  powerful  instruments  that  make  little  things 
look  big,  and  so  these  creatures  that  dwell  by  the  mil- 
lions in  a  glass  of  water  or  a  decayed  apple,  have 
come  to  have  a  real  meaning  and  to  present  a  real 
problem. 


90         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

In  fact,  we  have  found  that  all  nature  is  alive,  and 
that  life  preys  upon  life  in  a  most  remarkable  way,  and 
a  most  uncomfortable  way  also,  if  it  happens  to  be 
your  life  that  is  affected,  or  "infected,"  to  use  the 
proper  term. 

We  find  that  a  man's  body  is  actually  made  up  of 
millions  of  living  organisms,  that  the  blood  is  com- 
posed of  living  creatures,  that  some  of  these  are  white 
and  some  red,  and  that  there  is  a  constant  conflict 
going  on  right  inside  our  very  veins  and  heart. 

We  are  now  taught  that  diseases  are  caused  by 
tiny  animals,  that  every  breath  of  air  we  breathe  may 
be  infested  with  a  deadly  microbe  which  has  designs 
on  our  life;  in  fact,  we  know  that  we  are  in  a  world 
that  is  teeming  with  myriads  of  invisible  germs  that 
are  destructive  to  human  life,  and  that  we  can  not 
turn  to  the  right  or  the  left,  or  go  straight  ahead,  with- 
out encountering  an  army  of  them ;  they  fill  the  air  of 
the  city,  take  possession  of  the  cellar  and  the  garret 
and  all  the  living-rooms  of  your  home,  follow  you  to 
the  shop  or  the  office,  and  while  you  sleep  they  hover 
around  you,  seeking  a  chance  to  sink  their  small  fangs 
into  your  vitals — Ugh! 

After  a  man  has  read  a  bit  about  these  germs  he 
walks  around  on  tiptoe  and  dare  not  speak  above  a 
whisper  for  fear  that  some  germ  boy-scout  will  locate 
him  and  bring  on  the  army  of  invasion,  and  come 
across  and  "possess"  him.  It's  nerve  racking,  this 
dodging  of  invisible  demons  that  we  see  in  all  their 
glory  and  power,  thrown  up  in  real  life  poses  at  the 
moving-picture  show. 

For  all  that,  I've  come  to  the  sensible  conclusion 


CONQUERING  THE   GERMS  91 

that  the  healthy  human  organism  is  more  than  a  match 
for  any  army  of  disease  germs  that  ever  came  down 
the  pike,  and  that  as  long  as  a  man  lives  right  and 
keeps  his  body  clean  and  free  from  surfeit  deposits, 
he  need  not  fear  if  all  the  germs  in  Christendom 
come  and  roost  on  his  back  porch, — though  a  clean 
man's  back  porch  should  be  no  good  roosting-place 
for  germs. 

Given  plenty  of  pure  air  and  sunshine,  a  simple 
diet  and  sensible  outdoor  exercise,  the  human  organism 
will  cast  out  any  germ  that  seeks  to  damage  its  inter- 
nal anatomy.  The  body  is  supplied  with  gastric  juices 
and  white  blood  corpuscles  and  other  forces  for  just 
this  purpose,  and  when  the  body  is  vigorous,  all  these 
repelling  forces  are  vigorous,  and  woe  be  to  the  germ 
that  is  caught  anywhere  on  the  premises. 

But  if  the  body  is  stuffed  full  of  food  that  it  can't 
dispose  of,  and  every  organ  is  taxed  with  foreign 
deposits,  the  result  of  overwork,  the  germ  finds  an 
easy  lodging-place  and  congenial  soil  in  which  to  com- 
mence operations.  The  weakened  body,  weakened  by 
overindulgence  of  appetite  and  bad  habits,  is  the  legiti- 
mate prey  of  the  germ,  for  nature  has  evidently  cre- 
ated these  germs  for  just  this  purpose,  the  tearing 
down  of  an  organism  that  refuses  to  obey  her  laws. 

In  this  fight  against  the  germs  it  is  pretty  hard  to 
corner  them  and  destroy  them.  They  are  so  small, 
and  they  breed  so  rapidly,  and  they  spread  over  the 
country  so  easily,  that  we  can  never  be  sure  that  they 
are  not  around  us ;  as  you  read  this  you  may  be  breath- 
ing in  a  million  of  them.  It  will  be  only  after  society 
takes  the  position  that  human  life  is  more  important 


92         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

than  profits,  and  commences  a  universal  crusade 
against  all  dust  and  filth  that  the  germs  will  be  les- 
sened in  any  considerable  numbers,  and  even  then  we 
can  expect  to  have  them,  they  are  a  part  of  nature's 
plan. 

The  individual,  however,  may  free  himself  from  all 
anxiety  if  he  will  simply  obey  nature's  laws  and  build 
up  his  body  to  a  proper  point  of  resistance.  You  can 
eat  germs  dead  or  alive  with  impunity  if  you  will  stop 
eating  a  lot  of  other  things  that  furnish  food  for 
germs  inside  your  body. 

Eat  little,  breathe  much,  exercise  moderately  and 
keep  cheerful,  and  if  you  can't  keep  cheerful  always, 
keep  as  cheerful  as  you  can,  things  are  bad  enough 
without  you  going  around  with  a  long  face.  But  this 
doesn't  mean  that  you  should  be  satisfied.  If  things 
are  not  right,  change  them,  and  if  you  can't  do  this 
alone,  get  others  to  see  what's  wrong  and  lend  a 
helping  hand.  Not  all  of  the  parasites  are  micro- 
scopic, some  of  them  can  be  viewed  easily  with  the 
naked  eye.  When  the  race  locates  a  few  of  these  large 
visible  and  powerful  parasites  that  prey  upon  the  body 
politic,  then  we  will  have  a  better  chance  in  our  fight 
with  the  little  fellows  that  find  such  a  congenial  atmos- 
phere in  the  slums  of  our  cities. 


ion 


of  Waste 


CHAPTER  XII 

In  view  of  the  numerous  statements  made  by 
writers  on  economic  topics,  that  there  are  vast  numbers 
of  people  in  this  country  who  are  actually  starving, 
many  may  consider  the  information  in  these  articles  as 
contradictory  and  misleading. 

While  it  is  not  unlikely  that,  for  the  sake  of  greater 
emphasis,  the  condition  of  starvation  is  overexagger 
ated,  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  author  to  deny  that 
starvation  exists,  nor  in  any  way  to  minimize  the 
work  of  writers  who  are  striving  to  eradicate  the  un- 
just economic  conditions  leading  up  to  this  most  unde- 
sirable situation. 

My  position  is  this,  that  a  man  may  actually  starve 
to  death  when  his  stomach  is  full  of  what  is  misnamed 
"food." 

I  remember  an  incident  about  a  horse.  A  man  once 
bought  a  nice  horse.  He  did  not  know  much  about 
horses,  but  he  wanted  to  be  good  to  that  horse,  so  he 
fed  him  twelve  large  ears  of  corn  regularly.  The 
horse  got  along  nicely  for  a  time,  but  finally  he  com- 


94         HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

menced  to  run  down,  his  hide  got  tight  and  his  hair 
bristly,  and  he  had  a  gaunt  and  hungry  look  in  his  eye. 
One  night  the  master  inadvertently  left  the  empty 
bushel  basket,  from  which  he  had  fed  the  horse,  in 
the  manger.  The  next  morning  he  found  the  horse 
had  consumed  the  greater  part  of  the  basket,  all  that 
he  could  possibly  masticate  of  it. 

Now  no  one  will  maintain  that  twelve  ears  of  corn 
three  times  a  day  is  not  sufficient  food  for  a  horse,  but 
any  horseman  will  tell  you  that  without  abundant 
"rough  stuff,"  such  as  hay  or  fodder,  that  amount  of 
corn  will  burn  a  horse's  "insides"  out.  When  the 
horse  ate  the  basket,  he  was  after  "rough  stuff,"  and 
he  got  it,  but  just  a  little  too  rough. 

The  point  I  wish  to  impress  is  this:  it  is  not  the 
quantity  of  food  that  nourishes  and  builds  up  the  body, 
but  the  kind,  and  that  a  little  good  food  is  much  better 
than  a  lot  of  food,  either  good  or  bad. 

One's  body  may  be  starved  by  eating  too  much  rich 
food  as  well  as  by  eating  too  little  or  poor  food,  food 
that  is  adulterated, — and  the  extent  to  which  food  is 
adulterated,  in  spite  of  all  the  "startling  exposures" 
that  have  been  sprung  on  an  unsuspecting  public  in  the 
past  few  years,  is  little  understood. 

So  great  has  been  this  practice  of  adulteration  that 
even  the  capitalistic  lawmakers  have  tried  to  check  it, 
fearing,  perhaps,  that  they  themselves  will  be  poisoned 
if  they  don't.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  ordinary 
working  man's  "grub,"  this  question  has  not  yet  been 
considered  seriously,  and  it  is  here  in  the  "cheap  food" 
that  the  adulterations  are  the  most  flagrant. 

I  have  taken  the  position  that  a  very  little  good 


ASSIMILATION  AND  ELIMINATION  95 


Cultivate  resignation  and  learn  to  use  a  fly  swatter  gracefully. 


96          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

food  will  properly  nourish  the  body.  When  the  body 
has  to  consume  a  large  quantity  of  "material"  to  get  a 
little  "food,"  the  material  that  is  consumed  that  is  not 
food  is  injurious  and  destroys  the  organism  and  inca- 
pacitates it  to  assimilate  the  little  real  food  that  is  con- 
tained in  the  "conglomeration,"  which  is  perhaps  as 
good  a  word  as  can  be  employed  to  designate  the 
average  diet. 

To  paraphrase  the  horse  incident,  there  are  thou- 
sands of  people  who  are  eating  "bushel  baskets,"  in  an 
effort  to  satisfy  an  inner  craving  for  something  that 
the  system  needs  and  can  not  subtract  from  the  other 
material  with  which  it  is  supplied. 

Then  here  is  another  point  that  must  be  seriously 
considered,  if  you  want  to  travel  this  road  to  Wellville. 
The  body  may  be,  from  previous  abuses,  so  put  out  of 
order  that  it  can  not  assimilate  properly  even  the  very 
best  and  purest  of  food,  supplied  in  the  exact  amount 
needed  in  a  normal  state. 

Millions  of  people  are  troubled  with  chronic  con- 
stipation. So  common  is  this  grievous  disorder  that 
but  a  very  few  really  understand  its  symptoms  or  give 
any  special  thought  to  the  question,  and  yet  there  is 
nothing  of  more  importance. 

You  would  not  leave  a  dish  of  spoiled  and  stinking 
food  on  your  table  or  in  your  cupboard,  and  most  of 
you  know  better  than  to  throw  it  out  in  your  back 
yard.  But  many  of  you  are  actually  carrying  around 
inside  of  you  food  that  is  in  a  badly  spoiled  state,  and 
some  of  it  has  been  with  you  for  weeks  and  months 
even,  and  is  in  such  a  state  of  decomposition  that  it  is 
infested  with  worms,  nature's  scavengers. 


ASSIMILATION  AND  ELIMINATION  97 

Some  of  you  have  a  bowel  action  regularly, — about 
once  a  week, — and  some  have  an  action  each  day ;  the 
fact  is,  that  you  must  throw  out  the  waste  material 
sooner  or  later,  and  the  fact  that  you  seem  to  be  doing 
this,  satisfies  many  who  have  no  specific  knowledge 
of  their  internal  anatomy  or  how  and  when  it  should 
be  done. 

Now  put  this  down  as  an  absolute  rule  of  health: 
unless  the  bowels  act  regularly  and  normally,  good 
health  is  an  impossibility. 

The  fact  that  you  have  an  action  each  day  is  not 
sufficient,  that  action  must  be  a  proper  and  normal  one, 
and  must  cleanse  the  colon  of  its  contents,  not  merely 
eliminate  an  "instalment"  in  the  shape  of  dry,  hard, 
blackened  fecal  matter  that  comes  out  only  with  much 
straining  and  even  painful  distension. 

The  full  process  of  food  digestion  and  assimilation 
is  one  that  requires  scientific  explanation  and  the  au- 
thor hasn't  any  desire  to  tackle  it,  nor  is  it  necessary 
to  do  so.  Suffice  to  know  that  in  some  way  nature 
takes  the  food  that  is  put  in  the  stomach  and  does  her 
best  to  manufacture  it  into  bone,  muscle,  blood,  and 
physical  energy.  That  the  job  is  quite  an  important 
one  must  be  admitted ;  and  that  by  intelligent  selection 
of  what  goes  into  the  stomach  we  can  very  greatly 
assist  nature,  must  also  be  admitted  by  thinknig  peo- 
ple, though  most  people  seem  to  take  it  for  granted 
that  any  old  thing  will  do,  only  so  the  stomach  is  filled. 

One  thing  is  certain:  the  stomach  is  very  often 
filled  with  undesirable  material  from  which  Nature 
has  great  difficulty  in  selecting  for  the  use  of  the  body 
such  particles  as  will  build  up  the  tissues,  replenish 


98          HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

the  blood,  bones,  and  flesh,  and  leave  a  surplus  reserve 
energy  stored  in  each  organ  of  the  body. 

Once  in  the  stomach,  whatever  food  is  placed  there 
is  apt  to  stay  until  the  stomach,  through  its  digestive 
process,  is  able  to  pass  it  down  into  the  small  intes- 
tines. Sometimes  Nature  rebels  before  this  point  has 
been  reached  and  "passes  up"  the  contents  of  a  much- 
abused  and  insulted  stomach;  and  in  such  a  case  you 
can  be  thankful,  no  matter  how  disgusting  and  pain- 
ful the  ordeal,  for  this  "conglomeration"  is  better  out- 
side of  you  quickly  than  left  inside  to  go  through  the 
rest  of  the  process  and  poison  the  system  in  every 
department,  as  is  usually  the  case. 

Properly  masticated,  a  small  amount  of  good  food 
is  easily  handled  by  the  stomach  and  converted  into  a 
fluid  state  very  much  like  milk,  which  is  passed  into 
the  small  intestines  and  here  taken  up  into  the  system 
by  a  wonderful  process  of  assimilation  that  subtracts 
the  particles  that  go  to  sustain  the  different  functions 
of  the  body.  Properly  digested,  the  intestines  have 
no  trouble  in  getting  the  nourishment  that  is  needed 
and  the  waste  matter  is  cast  into  the  colon,  and  from 
there  out  of  the  body. 

This  entire  process  takes  some  hours.  There  are 
a  great  many  feet  of  small  intestines  through  which 
this  food  has  to  pass,  for  Nature  has  been  economical 
in  her  plan  and  designs  to  get  every  bit  of  force  she 
can  possibly  extract  from  the  food  given  her.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  a  small  amount  of  good  food  suffices, 
and  is  better  than  a  large  amount.  A  large  amount  of 
food  can  not  be  properly  masticated  in  the  first  place,  is 
not  properly  digested  in  the  second,  and  so  goes  to  the 


ASSIMILATION  AND  ELIMINATION  99 

small  intestines  in  an  improper  form  from  which  it 
is  difficult  to  subtract  the  needed  elements  in  the 
needed  state,  and  hence  it  is  pushed  on  down  into  the 
colon,  where  it  again  clogs  and  often  stays  for  weeks 
before  it  finally  gets  out  of  the  system. 

With  most  people  the  body  is  in  a  chronic  "stuffed'' 
state,  the  stomach  can  not  empty  until  the  small  intes- 
tines empty,  and  in  turn  the  small  intestines  can  not 
empty  until  the  colon  empties.  Each  is  kept  filled  to 
its  capacity,  and  immediately  when  the  stomach  is 
emptied,  and  is  just  settling  down  for  a  little  much- 
needed  rest,  cerchunk ! — in  comes  another  gob  of  stuff 
that  must  be  taken  care  of  in  some  way.  Many  people 
don't  even  allow  the  stomach  to  get  empty  at  all ;  they 
keep  filling  it  up  just  as  soon  as  there  is  a  little  space 
at  the  top. 

It  is  a  shame  how  we  treat  these  faithful  organs 
of  ours  in  our  selfish  effort  to  gratify  our  APPE- 
TITES, which  we  invariably  do  at  the  expense  of  our 
bodily  health. 

Talk  about  an  eight-hour  day — some  people  work 
their  internal  anatomy  an  even  twenty-four  hours  out 
of  every  twenty-four,  and  still  we  wonder  why  people 
die  young.  We  better  wonder  how  they  live  as  long 
as  they  do. 

But  to  return  to  our  problem  of  digestion.  I  am 
not  much  of  a"fan,"  but  the  stomach  might  be  likened 
unto  first  base  in  a  ball  game.  If  the  other  three 
bases  are  open,  there  is  a  chance  of  making  a  home 
run,  but  if  second  and  third — the  intestines  and  the 
colon — are  filled,  the  man  has  got  to  stay  on  first  base 
longer  than  he  should;  he  has  to  wait  till  there  is  a 


100       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

vacancy,  until  some  Ty  Cobb  comes  to  bat  and  lands 
the  ball  over  the  fence  and  cleans  up  all  the  bases. 

The  physical  Ty  Cobb  that  the  human  race  has 
been  playing  has  been  a  dose  of  epsom  salts  or  castor 
oil,  but  the  trouble  is  that  it  don't  really  clean  up  the 
bases,  though  it  usually  makes  a  hole  through  the  mass 
of  clogged-up  matter.  The  situation  is  still  wrong. 
In  other  words,  "Ty"  fails  to  land  one  over  the  fence ; 
he  just  strikes  a  foul,  and  is  caught  out. 

The  idea  I  am  trying  to  give  you  is  that  you 
should  not  let  your  system  get  clogged,  that  you  should 
stop  the  "stuffing"  habit.  If,  however,  you  do  get 
clogged  up,  use  the  water  enema;  it  is  by  far  the 
quickest  and  most  proper  way  of  inside  cleaning. 

The  habitual  use  of  drugs,  pills,  etc.,  for  causing 
bowel  action  is  harmful  in  the  extreme,  and  falls  far 
short  of  accomplishing  the  needed  results. 

Now  get  this:  you  can't  continually  stuff  your 
stomach  and  expect  your  body  properly  to  eliminate 
the  amount  of  material  you  put  into  it,  even  though 
you  do  this  in  an  effort  to  supply  pure  food  from  a 
lot  of  rubbish ;  the  effect  on  the  system  is  the  same. 
The  system  can  take  care  of  some  waste,  is  built  pur- 
posely to  do  this,  but  there  is  a  limit  to  its  normal 
capacity.  A  five-horse-power  engine,  speeded  up  to 
the  limit,  might  do  for  a  while  the  work  that  a  ten- 
horse-power  engine  working  normally  ought  to  do, 
but  the  life  of  that  five-horse-power  engine  would  be 
greatly  shortened, — and  that's  just  the  thing  that  is 
happening  with  the  race  today. 

We  have  given  our  bodies  impossible  tasks,  not 
in  feats  of  strength  and  endurance  along  the  lines  of 


ASSIMILATION  AND  ELIMINATION          101 


Such  "stuff"  would  make  a  well  man  sick. 


102       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

outside  activity,  but  in  feats  of  strength  and  endurance 
along  the  lines  of  inside  activity. 

Now  note  again :  if  the  food  is  kept  in  the  stomach 
too  long,  it  ferments,  and  instead  of  emptying  food 
laden  into  the  intestines,  it  fills  them  with  a  mess  of 
matter  in  which  the  food  properties  have  already  been 
largely  destroyed,  some  of  them  turned  into  poisons 
by  the  wonderful  chemistry  of  the  body.  If  the  small 
intestines  can  not  quickly  dispose  of  this  mess  into  the 
colon,  these  poisons  are  taken  into  the  system  and  pass 
through  the  kidneys  or  are  pushed  out  through  the 
glands  of  the  skin.  Nature  makes  every  effort  to 
eliminate  the  poison  quickly,  but  a  continued  con- 
gested state  means  that  the  kidneys  and  other  organs 
also  become  overworked,  and  the  flesh  filled  with  pu- 
trid matter,  until  the  body  is  filled  with  disease  and 
fairly  stinks.  No  wonder  frequent  bathing  is  neces- 
sary for  some  people  to  keep  the  body  smelling 
sweetly. 

But  finally  this  matter,  what  is  left  of  it,  is  pushed 
into  the  colon.  Here  nature  has  provided  a  large 
reservoir  in  case  of  emergency  and  to  furnish  ample 
room  for  normal  operation.  It  is  at  this  point,  how- 
ever, that  some  of  the  most  serious  complications 
result,  for  the  colon,  in  spite  of  its  liberal  capacity, 
finally  becomes  clogged  and  its  normal  muscular  action 
eventually  destroyed  by  the  hard  f eces  that  dries  to  its 
walls.  Eventually  there  is  just  a  small  hole  through 
this  putrid  mass  that  permits  the  egress  of  waste 
material,  which,  having  no  natural  muscular  action  to 
eliminate  it,  is  only  eliminated  by  pressure,  one  wad 
pushing  out  another  wad  until,  in  the  course  of  a  week 


ASSIMILATION  AND  ELIMINATION          103 

or  so,  the  matter  gets  through  the  colon  and  is  de- 
posited in  a  dried  hard  chunk  of  blackened  excrement, 
— and  some  people  call  this  a  healthy  action,  or  fail  to 
take  any  cognizance  of  it  at  all. 

Human  excrement  should  be  light  in  color  and  soft 
in  consistency.  It  should  be  deposited  without  strain- 
ing, and  regularly  in  the  morning.  The  colon  should 
be  entirely  cleaned  by  this  process  each  day,  as  should 
every  other  organ  of  the  body  be  permitted  to  do  its 
task  and  have  a  proper  rest  period. 

Try  this  test :  stop  eating  for  a  week ;  it  won't  hurt 
you  a  bit.  You  will  find  if  you  have  not  been  living 
properly  that  you  will  keep  getting  refuse  out  of  your 
system  for  days  and  days  after  you  stop  putting  any- 
thing in,  and  if  you  are  observing,  you  will  be  sur- 
prised, almost  dumbfounded,  to  know  where  it  comes 
from.  In  such  a  case  you  are  just  giving  your  body 
a  chance  in  this  way  to  get  rid  of  a  lot  of  material 
that  you  have  forced  upon  it,  and  that  it  could  not 
eliminate  in  the  ordinary  run  of  the  tasks  assigned  it. 

Many  of  you  who  read  this  have  something  like  a 
bushel  of  waste  matter  stored  away  in  your  system 
right  now,  matter  that  is  harmful,  that  ought  to  be 
eliminated,  that  is  stopping  up  different  organs  and 
keeping  them  from  functioning  naturally,  that  is  caus- 
ing you  aches  and  pains  and  distress. 

Why  not  be  sensible  and  have  a  good  inside  house 
cleaning  ? 

Now  house  cleaning  is  not  a  pleasant  time  of  the 
year.  When  you  come  home  some  night  and  find  the 
carpets  all  up  and  the  rooms  full  of  dust,  and  every- 
thing upside  down,  your  easy  chair  in  the  woodshed, 


104       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

and  your  slippers  in  the  coal  bin,  if  a  mere  man,  you 
are  apt  to  remark,  "Darn  this  house-cleaning  business, 
everything  is  dirtier  now  than  it  was  before.''  And 
this  remark  would  hold  true,  if  you  judged  by  the 
visible  dirt  at  hand.  But  the  house  cleaner  does  not 
bring  into  the  home  any  new  dirt,  she  just  digs  it  out 
of  the  corners  and  from  behind  the  pictures  and  other 
places  where  it  has  lodged.  And  so  with  your  internal 
house  cleaning, — it  will  not  be  a  pleasant  time,  and 
your  entire  system  will  probably  be  turned  upside 
down,  and  you  will  feel,  oh,  so  miserable !  during  this 
period  of  going  without  food ;  but  old  Mother  Nature 
will  improve  every  moment  you  give  her  to  set  your 
house  in  the  best  possible  shape. 

And  after  it  is  all  over,  you  will  feel  like  a  new 
being,  and  the  little  flesh,  not  counting  the  rubbish, 
you  have  lost  in  the  fast  will  come  back  to  you  a 
pound  a  day  or  more,  and  you  will  be  very  glad  indeed 
that  you  cleaned  out  your  internal  house.  But  don't 
forget  at  this  point  what  got  the  house  dirty,  and  be 
wise  to  the  point  of  keeping  it  clean  ever  afterwards. 
Also  do  not  try  an  experiment  of  this  kind  until  you 
know  just  what  you  are  doing  and  why  you  are  do- 
ing it. 


,tve 


CHAPTER  XIII 


Very  few  people  starve  to  death. 

Many  people,  however,  suffer  from  malnutrition, 
lack  of  proper  food,  and  a  great  many  more  from  over- 
eating. 

Now  here  is  a  bold  statement,  one  that  will  be  dis- 
puted at  once  by  those  who  have  not  given  thought  to 
the  subject:  one  of  the  greatest  causes  of  disease  is 
overeating. 

I  trust  my  readers  will  give  me  at  least  a  chance  to 
prove  this  assertion,  and,  better  still,  will  take  the 
trouble  to  prove  it  for  themselves  through  individual 
experimentation. 

In  the  first  place,  very  few  people  understand  the 
actual  requirements  of  the  body  as  to  the  kind  and 
amount  of  food  needed  to  replace  its  waste  tissue  and 
supply  it  with  vital  energy. 

The  average  person  has  been  "brought  up"  on  at 
least  three  so-called  "square"  meals  a  day ;  some  have 
habitually  "pieced"  between  meals ;  and  most  all  have 
naturally,  or  at  least  easily,  assumed  that  this  is  the 
proper  procedure. 


106       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

To  miss  one  meal  seems  to  these  people  to  be  a 
severe  privation,  a  matter  for  interesting  conversation 
for  days  afterwards,  and  to  be  forcibly  deprived  of 
food  for  twenty-four  hours  is  often  considered  "dan- 
gerous," while  to  be  without  food  for  several  days, 
say  entombed  in  a  mine,  this  is  not  only  considered 
dangerous,  but  abundant  proof  can  be  furnished  to 
show  that  it  is  dangerous — to  people  uneducated  re- 
garding the  real  power  of  the  human  body  to  go  with- 
out food.  Under  such  circumstances  people  very  often 
are  supposed  to  starve  to  death,  but  this  is  a  mistake ; 
it  is  not  starvation,  but  fright  that  kills  them. 

Here,  then,  is  a  most  wonderful  demonstration  of 
the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body.  And  it  will  be 
well  for  you,  dear  reader,  to  remember  this  statement, 
for  you  may  sometime  be  placed  in  a  similar  condition 
and  be  compelled  to  fast  a  considerable  length  of  time ; 
in  such  a  case  I  am  sure  that  what  follows  will  be  very 
valuable  information  to  you,  and  may  enable  you  to 
save  your  own  life  and  the  lives  of  many  around  you. 

Of  recent  years  a  great  many  people  have  fasted. 
There  are  now  a  number  of  books  written  on  the  sub- 
ject. These  fasts  have  been  entered  into  for  various 
reasons — some  for  notoriety,  some  for  scientific  ex- 
periment, and  many  for  the  cure  of  various  diseases 
and  disorders  of  the  body.  Whatever  else  may  have 
resulted,  this  is  certain,  that  it  has  been  absolutely 
proven  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  body  can  live  for  thirty 
days  without  one  particle  of  food ;  in  truth,  thirty  days 
is  now  a  short  fast,  for  cases  of  ninety  days'  fast  are 
on  record,  and  forty  and  fifty  days  are  not  unusual. 

Now  I  can  hear  you  say,  "Well,  some  people  might 


FEASTING  OR  FASTING  107 

be  able  to  do  that,  but  I  can't."  To  be  frank,  should 
you  not  say,  "I  won't"  ?  There  is  no  question  but  that 
you  could  if  you  would.  There  is  a  question,  how- 
ever, whether  it  would  be  desirable  for  you  to  do  this. 

It  is  not  normal  for  man  to  fast;  he  is  naturally 
an  "eating"  animal,  and  a  certain  amount  of  proper 
food  is  desirable  each  day.  But  neither  is  it  natural 
for  man  to  be  sick;  the  normal  condition  is  health. 
If  one  is  sick,  then  it  is  sensible  to  find  out  why  one  is 
sick,  and  having  found  out  why,  to  remove  the  cause 
and  take  such  measures  as  will  assist  nature  in  travel- 
ing the  road  back  to  health  and  strength. 

When  one  is  sick,  the  usual  thing  is  to  call  lustily 
for  a  "doctor."  So  constant  and  numerous  are  these 
calls  that  in  this  country  we  have  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  "medicine  men,"  hurrying  around  with  auto- 
mobiles, trying  to  "call"'  on  every  caller — with  the  re- 
sult that  the  more  doctors  we  have  the  more  we  seem 
to  need,  and  we  have  established  medical  colleges  that 
are  now  turning  them  out  by  the  hundreds. 

Fact  is,  it's  quite  a  "business"  these  days,  this  "doc- 
toring business,"  and  along  with  it  the  business  of  the 
undertaker,  the  coffin  maker,  and  the  sexton. 

Now  suppose  you  are  sick;  it's  not  necessary  to 
make  any  "supposition"  with  most  of  you;  very  few 
people  are  actually  well,  in  perfect  health.  Most  of  us 
are  just  able  to  crawl  around,  our  ailments  are  often 
so  protracted  that  they  become  chronic,  and  many 
thousands  never  know  what  it  is  to  be  free  from  some 
kind  of  ache  or  pain,  unless  the  "doctor"  dopes  them 
with  something,  often  morphine  or  worse. 

But  we  will  say  now  that  you  are  suffering  from 


108       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

some  acute  and  manifestly  distressing  disease;  old 
Mother  Nature  is  trying  her  best  to  tell  you  there  is 
something  wrong — that's  PAIN,  and  the  purpose  of 
pain,  which  is  the  "guardian  angel"  of  the  body. 

You've  tried  the  old  ideas  a  long  time,  and  you 
have  never  been  permanently  bettered.  Of  course 
you  have  been  sick  and  got  well,  or  so  you  are  able  to 
"get  up  and  around,"  but  you  haven't  been  actually 
well  for  years, — that's  the  condition  of  millions  of 
people  today.  Now  suppose  you  try  something  new. 

I  understand  that  few  people  want  to  "experiment" 
on  themselves,  but  it's  about  as  safe  as  letting  some 
"doctor"  experiment  on  you,  and  much  cheaper. 

Here  is  the  idea:  when  you  get  sick,  or  when  you 
know  that  you  are  not  in  perfect  health,  investigate 
the  "fast  cure."  <>•  \  -*\ 

Most  ailments  come  from  the  different  organs  of 
the  body  being  clogged  up  with  foreign  matter  of 
some  kind  in  the  nature  of  poisons,  gases,  waste,  or 
germs.  (Perhaps  I  am  not  using  the  correct  "med- 
ical" terms  to  make  myself  clear  to  the  "doctors,"  but 
this  article  is  not  written  with  any  idea  that  it  will 
ever  receive  their  attention,  and  the  average  "patient" 
will  know,  or  be  able  to  guess,  what  I  mean  from  my 
"unprofessional  language.") 

If  the  sewer  system  of  a  city  gets  clogged  up,  they 
don't  give  it  a  dose  of  pills,  they  flush  it  with  water; 
if  your  system  gets  clogged  up, — and  that's  the  matter 
with  most  of  you  most  of  the  time, — do  the  same  thing. 
To  do  this  properly,  first  stop  putting  in  any  more 
clogging  material;  in  other  words,  stop  eating,  and 
then  drink  plenty  of  water  often,  and  take  internal 


FEASTING  OR  FASTING  109 

baths  (which  are  absolutely  necessary  in  a  fast)  regu- 
larly once  or  twice  a  day,  until  every  particle  of  mat- 
ter is  eliminated. 

The  idea  is  this :  the  fast  gives  nature  a  chance  to 
clean  you  out,  clean  out  every  diseased  organ,  and  stop 
feeding  every  abnormal  growth. 

The  beneficial  results  from  fasting  are  little  less 
than  marvelous.  The  cures  from  so-called  "incurable" 
diseases  border  on  the  miraculous.  It's  like  putting 
an  old  and  much-abused  automobile  into  a  good  work- 
shop and  having  it  completely  overhauled ;  it  runs  like 
a  new  car  when  you  take  it  out,  but  of  course  it  isn't 
a  new  car,  nor  will  you  have  a  new  body,  but  you  will 
come  very  near  to  having  one,  if  you  take  a  complete 
fast  and  get  rid  of  the  old  one  almost  down  to  the 
bones  and  skin,  and  this  can  be  done  without  injury 
and  with  positive  benefit,  startling  as  it  may  appear. 

And  now  I  suppose  you  recall  stories  of  ship- 
wrecked crews  and  the  story  writers'  vivid  pictures  of 
the  awful  agony  of  "hunger  pangs"  when  people  are 
starving,  and  you  shudder  and  say,  "Not  for  mine, 
thank  you !" 

Strange  to  say,  there  is  very  little  inconvenience 
from  hunger  during  a  fast,  and  this  chiefly  at  the  very 
start  of  it.  At  the  second,  or  third  day  at  the  most, 
all  desire  for  food  usually  disappears,  and  until  it 
reappears  naturally,  the  fast  should  not  be  broken. 

Strange  again,  but  many  people  while  fasting  are 
not  inconvenienced  by  physical  exhaustion,  and  after 
the  system  has  become  in  a  measure  accustomed  to  the 
fast  they  find  their  strength,  lost  in  the  first  part  of  it, 
and  are  able  to  do  vigorous  physical  feats.  For  in- 


110       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

stance,  an  authentic  case  is  recorded  where  a  young 
lady  walked  twenty-four  miles  on  the  twentieth  day 
of  her  fast  without  any  serious  fatigue. 

As  a  rule  the  first  and  second  days  of  the  fast  are 
the  hardest;  the  craving  for  food  will  be  very  notice- 
able, especially  at  meal  times ;  the  stomach  will  be  all 
upset;  the  tongue  will  commence  to  get  a  thick  coat, 
the  breath  to  be  offensive,  and  you  will  literally  feel 
"all  in."  It  is  about  this  point,  possibly  the  third  day, 
that  most  people  with  weak  backbones  stop,  and  for- 
ever after  they  go  around  telling  about  how  they 
"fasted"  and  how  it  did  them  no  good,  etc. 

Fortunately  there  are  many  who,  when  they  go 
into  a  thing,  go  in  to  win  out,  and  refuse  to  give  up 
until  they  have  made  a  thorough  attempt  according  to 
the  requirements.  These  people  first  study  up  on  the 
question  to  the  point  of  convincing  themselves  that 
others  have  been  greatly  benefited  by  fasting,  that  it 
is  not  dangerous,  that  one  can  easily  go  a  month  with- 
out food  and  without  any  serious  consequences  to  the 
body, — and  so  they  stick  through  the  first  few  dis- 
agreeable days,  stick  until  old  Mother  Nature  says  to 
them,  "Having  made  a  thorough  job  of  my  house 
cleaning  and  put  this  body  in  the  best  possible  shape, 
considering  the  previous  injuries  done  to  it,  now  I'm 
ready  for  business  again." 

The  only  danger  from  fasting  comes  in  breaking 
the  fast.  The  fast  can  be  broken  at  any  time,  but  if 
broken  before  hunger  appears  naturally,  the  bene- 
ficial effects  will  be  only  partial,  though  even  a  short 
fast  is  helpful.  No  matter  how  miserable  you  feel, 
and  many  do  feel  miserable  all  through  this  ordeal,  for 


FEASTING  OR  FASTING  HI 

in  a  sense  it  is  an  ordeal,  you  need  not  worry  as  long 
as  you  are  drinking  plenty  of  water  and  taking  your 
enemas  regularly.  Not  until  the  tongue  cleans  up 
should  you  take  food  of  any  kind ;  it  will  start  around 
the  edges  first,  a  nice  little  red  band,  and  keep  working 
inward  until  you  have  the  nicest  little  soft  red  tongue, 
full  of  "taste"  for  the  food,  that  you  will  soon  be  eat- 
ing with  a  relish  that  you  have  not  known  since  the 
days  when  you  were  a  barefooted  kid. 

There  are  several  ways  advocated  to  break  a  fast. 
The  writer  broke  a  fast  once  by  using  grape  juice,  just 
a  tablespoonful  to  start  with,  and  increasing  the  dose 
gradually  each  hour  up  to  a  glassful.  The  second  day 
he  started  on  milk  and  gradually  kept  increasing  the 
quantity  for  several  days.  Many  "fast  experts"  ad- 
vocate living  on  an  exclusive  milk  diet  for  a  week  or 
so  after  the  fast.  Milk  does  not  agree  with  some 
people,  and  in  such  cases  this  would  probably  not  be 
best.  Broths  and  easily  digested  solid  foods  can  be 
quickly  substituted,  though  one  must  ever  bear  in 
mind  that  after  the  fast  is  broken  the  appetite  is  rave- 
nous and  must  be  controlled  until  the  body  becomes 
normal  weight. 

In  most  cases  the  lost  weight  is  regained  inside  a 
couple  of  weeks,  and  usually  to  people  who  were  under 
weight  before  the  fast  several  pounds  of  good  clean 
tissue  is  added.  In  cases  of  overweight  the  fast  al- 
ways helps  to  bring  the  body  back  to  its  proper  normal 
weight. 

Here  is  the  entire  situation  in  a  nut  shell:  if  you 
have  lived  right  and  are  in  perfect  health,  as  you  will 
be,  then  there  is  no  sense  in  your  fasting,  unless  you 


112       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

do  this  as  a  "spiritual  experience,"  and  there  are  some 
interesting  results  in  this  particular.  But  if  you  are 
not  in  perfect  health,  fasting  will  give  nature  a  chance 
to  clean  out  the  impurities  from  your  system  and  give 
you  a  new  lease  of  life  in  a  way  that  only  a  personal 
experience  can  convince  you  is  possible. 

I  know  of  a  certain  lady  whose  health  had  run 
down  to  an  alarming  point.  She  finally  could  stand 
the  strain  no  longer,  and  went  to  a  physician  who 
diagnosed  her  case  as  pronounced  diabetes.  Not  sat- 
isfied with  the  one  examination,  she  went  to  two  other 
physicians  and  received  the  same  report;  this  threw 
her  into  a  frightened  state  that  immensely  aggravated 
the  difficulty  and  she  was  constantly  up  and  down,  up 
and  down,  throughout  the  night,  and  the  urinal  dis- 
charge was  very  copious;  it  was  a  mystery  where  all 
the  water  came  from.  The  lady  had  a  floating  kidney, 
and  the  physicians  all  advised  an  immediate  operation. 
The  matter  looked  very  serious,  so  serious  that  she 
took  a  trip  to  Battle  Creek  to  have  an  examination 
there  at  the  sanitarium.  The  result  of  this  trip  was 
not  satisfactory,  and  she  came  back  more  discouraged 
than  ever.  At  this  time  I  had  been  reading  up  on  the 
matter  of  fasting,  and  also  had  taken  a  short  experi- 
mental fast  of  seven  days,  and  I  advised  that  this  lady 
take  a  fast.  She  had  not  studied  the  matter  herself, 
but  on  the  promise  of  a  trip  to  the  Southland,  her 
home  (for  this  lady  happens  to  be  my  wife),  she 
finally  consented  and  the  fast  began. 

It  was  a  very  trying  ordeal  for  both  of  us.  The 
amount  of  matter  that  was  thrown  out  from  the  sys- 
tem was  unbelievable.  It  seemed  that  the  little  woman 


FEASTING  OR  FASTING  113 

would  actually  turn  inside  out,  and  the  vomiting  spells 
were  very  frequent  and  very  painful.  She  was  soon 
so  weak  that  she  took  to  the  bed.  On  the  second  day 
the  desire  for  food  left  her,  and  later  when  she  found 
she  had  no  desire  to  eat,  she  became  frightened,  and 
on  the  fifth  day  this  grew  upon  her  so  that  she  felt 
that  she  was  going  to  pass  in  her  checks  right  away. 
Her  nervous  mental  condition  became  so  serious  that 
we  decided  to  break  the  fast,  though  it  had  not  really 
a  good  start.  For  all  that,  she  soon  found  she  could 
eat,  and  in  a  remarkably  short  time  she  was  strong 
enough  for  her  trip  South,  and  when  she  returned 
a  month  later,  she  was  almost  one  of  these  "new 
women"  we  read  so  much  about,  having  added  many 
pounds  of  good  healthy  flesh  and  having  completely 
eliminated,  for  the  time  being,  her  old  complaint.  I 
verily  believe  my  wife  would  be  dead  today  if  we  had 
followed  the  advice  of  the  three  physicians,  and  if  she 
had  not  taken  that  fast;  and  that's  recommendation 
enough  to  convince  me  that  fasting  beats  filling  one's 
hide  with  a  lot  of  "dope"  called  medicine,  or  cutting 
out  one's  internal  organs. 

An  anticipated  question, — and  a  frank  answer: 
"For  what  kind  of  diseases  do  you  advise  fasting?" 
I  do  not  advise  fasting  at  all.    All  I  do  advise  is 
that  you  carefully  study  into  the  subject  and  decide 
the  matter  for  yourself  on  the  merits  of  the  case. 

I  will  say  this,  however,  that  there  is  good  evidence 
to  prove  that  even  cancer  can  be  cured  in  this  manner ; 
and  I  am  personally  convinced  that  any  disease  that 
the  doctors  can  even  "better,"  can  be  completely  cured 
through  fasting. 


114       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

And  this  in  parting:  if  you  ever  decide  to  go 
through  a  fast,  also  decide  that  when  you  get  through 
you  will  start  in  at  that  point  to  live  right,  for  unless 
you  do  the  fast  will  be  but  a  temporary  freedom  from 
disease.  You  can't  disobey  nature's  laws  and  be 
healthy.  If  you  are  determined  to  gratify  your  appe- 
tite and  follow  your  bad  habits,  what's  the  use  of 
fasting  at  all  ?  The  sooner  the  fool-killer  gets  you  the 
better  it  will  be  for  the  race. 


A  FRANK  STATEMENT  OF  FACTS 

Patient — "Is  it  absolutely  necessary  to  operate  on  me,  doctor?" 
Doctor — "Well,  ahem,  not  exactly  necessary,  but  customary." 


PIGS  OR  FIGS! 


Must  we  eat  hog 
to  live  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Many  people  are  psychologized  with  the  idea  that 
one  can  not  live  without  animal  or  flesh  food. 

To  prove  the  contrary  requires  no  argument ;  it  is 
merely  a  matter  of  fact  that  millions  of  people  live  on 
a  vegetarian  diet  all  their  lives. 

It  is  also  a  clear  matter  of  historic  deduction,  that 
for  countless  ages  our  prehistoric  ancestors  lived  on 
what  is  termed  "innocent"  food — fruits,  nuts,  vegeta- 
bles, cereals,  roots,  etc. 

It  may  be  argued  that  they  had  no  weapons  and 
were  not  able  to  procure  flesh  food,  and  it  is  true  that 
man  in  his  most  primitive  condition  was  weaponless, 
but  nature  provided  him,  as  she  provides  every  animal, 
with  just  the  food  he  needed. 

The  using  of  fish  as  food  came  only  after  the  fear 
of  fire  had  been  conquered  and  mankind  had  learned 
to  control  and  use  it  to  his  own  advantage, — a  long 
and  interesting  chapter  in  human  history  not  to  be  told 


116       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

in  this  connection.  (Read  "The  Story  of  the  Giants 
and  Their  Tools,"  by  same  author.) 

To  get  right  down  to  brass  tacks,  all  animal  organ- 
isms are  sustained  by  the  vegetable  kingdom.  It  is 
only  a  question  as  to  whether  you  will  eat  "first  hand" 
or  "second  hand"  vegetables — most  people  draw  the 
line  on  "third  hand"  vegetables. 

Here  is  the  idea :  if  you  eat  a  chicken,  the  chicken 
ate  corn,  and  it  is  the  corn,  not  the  chicken,  that  is  the 
original  source  of  life-sustaining  energy;  as  stated 
above,  the  chicken  is  only  second-class  vegetable  mat- 
ter. 

If  you  eat  cow,  the  cow  ate  grass,  and  you  are 
eating  second-hand  grass. 

Now,  from  this,  you  may  argue :  "Seeing  I  am  not 
able  to  eat  grass  first  hand,  and  seeing  I  am  able  to  eat 
cow,  then  is  it  not  wisdom  for  me  to  let  the  cow  eat 
the  grass,  that  I  may  eat  the  cow?" 

The  logic  seems  to  be  good,  at  least  it  has  con- 
vinced many  who  wanted  to  be  favorably  impressed, 
but  it  is  not  conclusive. 

Why  does  the  cow  eat  grass? 

The  answer  the  cow  would  give,  were  she  able  to 
speak,  would  be  that  she  is  hungry,  and  grass  satisfies 
her  appetite,  it  is  her  natural  food. 

The  answer  science  gives  is  that  the  grass  supplies 
the  cow  with  energy  which  she  consumes,  and  while 
some  of  this  energy  is  still  in  her  body  when  she  is 
killed  for  food,  in  the  form  of  new  life  cells,  there  are 
also  dead  cells  that  are  not  food,  but  refuse  that  the 
cow  can't  use,  or  rather  that  the  cow  has  used,  and 
that  the  human  who  eats  the  cow  must  use  over  again. 


MUST  WE  EAT  HOG  TO  LIVE?  117 

By  the  above  is  meant  that  in  every  animal  organ- 
ism there  is  a  constant  process  of  decay  going  on,  dead 
cells  are  being  replaced  by  live  ones,  and  flesh  is  com- 
posed of  both. 

Flesh  food,  then,  is  not  the  best  food,  because  the 
energy  has  already  been  used  by  the  animal,  and  the 
flesh  is  full  of  waste  that  can  not  be  utilized,  nor  is  it 
good  for  other  reasons  equally  important. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  the  natural  food  of  man, 
for  man  is  not  naturally  a  carnivorous  animal,  but 
belongs  to  the  fruit  and  nut  eaters. 

Flesh  alone  will  not  sustain  human  life.  The  dire 
results  that  come  from  a  purely  flesh  diet,  when  such 
a  diet  is  enforced,  are  a  matter  of  record,  and  horrible 
to  contemplate.  Flesh  can  only  be  used  in  connection 
with  other  vegetable  and  real  food,  and  when  used  a 
great  many  undesirable  if  not  serious  physical  results 
are  sure  to  follow. 

Flesh  is  not  a  "humane"  food;  it  requires  cruelty 
to  procure  it.  The  "butcher"  business  is  not  elevating 
or  ennobling.  The  man  who  makes  a  business  of 
striking  helpless  cattle  in  the  head  with  an  ax  and  then 
cutting  their  throats  is  brutalized  by  the  work  he  does, 
and  the  society  that  requires  this  work  to  be  done  is 
also  brutalized. 

The  ripe  peach  drops  from  the  tree  into  the  hand ; 
its  food  element  may  be  consumed,  and  its  pit  may  be 
planted  and  bring  forth  another  tree.  In  other  words, 
by  plucking  and  eating  the  peach  you  but  assist  the 
process  of  nature.  To  grow  peaches,  to  make  two 
grow  where  one  grew  before,  this  is  ennobling;  the 
man  who  works  at  it  is  a  public  benefactor.  To 


118       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

gather  nuts,  to  sow  and  reap  grain,  to  cultivate  corn, — 
all  these  pursuits  are  pleasant  and  uplifting,  they  bring 
man  close  to  old  Mother  Nature,  they  fill  his  lungs 
with  the  breath  of  life,  and  provide  food  for  his  body 
that  is  full  of  life-giving  energy. 

To  "stick"  a  hog  and  listen  to  its  piteous  squealing 
and  death  gurgle  is  brutal;  it  deadens  the  faculty  of 
pity;  it  hardens  the  heart  of  compassion;  it  sears  the 
very  soul  and  helps  to  make  mankind  what  it  is  today, 
a  community  of  carnivorous  animals,  preying  upon 
each  other,  shrewd,  cunning,  merciless,  bestial,  and 
thirsting  for  blood. 

If  it  were  necessary,  it  would  be  different. 

But  it  is  not  necessary,  nor  is  it  desirable,  nor  is  it 
economic. 

It  takes  about  eight  pounds  of  good  corn  to  make 
one  pound  of  what  has  been  politely  designated  as 
"sow-bosom";  and  any  one  of  these  eight  pounds  of 
good  corn  will  supply  far  more  life  energy  to  the 
human  body  than  will  one  pound  of  filthy  flesh,  for 
when  flesh  is  considered  in  its  proper  light,  as  food  it 
is  really  filthy  in  that  it  contains  dead  cells,  and  fur- 
ther, that  it  makes  the  body  into  which  it  is  taken 
filthy  and  unclean. 

If  flesh  is  good  food,  why  not  eat  animals  that  eat 
flesh,  thus  getting  "third  hand"  vegetables?  It  must 
be  admitted  that  many  people  do  eat  carnivorous  ani- 
mals, but  they  are  generally  eaten  at  a  time  when  the 
animals  are  living  on  vegetable  food.  The  darkey 
prefers  his  "possom"  in  persimmon  time,  and  the 
white  man  prefers  his  "hog"  corn  fed,  but  he  doesn't 
always  get  him  that  way.  I  have  seen  hogs  fattened 


MUST  WE  EAT  HOG  TO  LIVE?  H9 

from  the  refuse  of  a  slaughter  house  that  were  wal- 
lowing in  blood  and  offal,  and  no  more  fit  for  food 
than  the  buzzards  that  got  their  food  from  the  same 
supply. 

A  carnivorous  animal  brought  up  on  milk  and  inno- 
cent food  can  be  kept  tame,  but  once  he  gets  the  taste 
of  blood,  he  becomes  dangerous.  Carnivorous  animals 
are  supposed  to  live  on  flesh,  we  are  making  no  argu- 
ment to  the  contrary;  but  the  fact  remains  that  the 
kind  of  food  that  an  animal  eats  affects  its  disposition, 
and  this  will  apply  absolutely  to  the  human  animal. 

If  you  want  to  try  an  experiment  and  you  have  a 
tame,  good-dispositioned  dog,  just  feed  him  on  raw 
meat  exclusively.  It  won't  hurt  the  dog,  that's  a  nat- 
ural food  for  dogs;  but  before  long  the  dog  will  be- 
come cross  and  snappy  and  bite  some  one.  So  you 
better  not  try  that  experiment  after  all. 

I'll  tell  you  a  better  one.  Perhaps  you  know  some 
person  in  your  family  who  is  cross  and  snappy,  and 
possibly  you  are  just  a  bit  cross  and  snappy  yourself ; 
well,  in  a  case  like  this,  where  you  have  so  much  better 
chance  to  make  a  good  experiment,  spare  the  dog. 

If  the  women  only  knew  how  much  dirty  work  they 
could  save  themselves  by  teaching  their  family  to  live 
on  innocent  food,  it  would  be  a  great  point  in  their 
favor,  and  the  average  housewife  has  enough  work 
to  do  without  adding  unnecessary  burdens. 

The  very  best  diet  is  the  cheapest  and  the  easiest 
to  prepare. 

In  fact,  no  preparation  at  all  is  needed. 

Fruit  and  nuts  are  best  eaten  in  their  raw  state, 
and  with  milk  you  have  a  perfect  diet.  It  sounds  so 


120       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

simple  that  it  staggers  your  credulity.  You  are  used 
to  coming  to  a  table  with  steaming  viands,  slabs  of 
greasy  meat,  gravies,  pickles,  and  a  variety  of  con- 
glomerations, clear  down  to  "hash" ;  in  fact,  it  is  all 
"hash"  after  it  is  thrown  into  the  stomach  in  the  usual 
manner. 

Fruit,  nuts,  and  milk  may  be  a  part  of  this  layout, 
but  these  things  are  considered  only  as  "accessories" 
of  small  consequence.  You  think  you  have  to  have 
something  that  will  "stick  to  your  ribs,"  as  you  ex- 
press it.  The  fact  is  that  a  good  many  of  these  things 
stick  to  your  liver,  stick  to  your  kidneys,  stick  to  your 
colon,  and  the  harder  they  stick,  the  worse  off  it  is 
for  you. 

But,  "Goodness,  gracious !"  you  exclaim ;  you  don't 
expect  one  to  live  on  just  fruit  and  nuts  and  milk? 
No,  I  really  don't  expect  some  of  you  to  change  your 
habits  of  eating  one  iota.  You  have  become  so  thor- 
oughly saturated  with  the  psychology  of  your  age  and 
accustomed  to  the  habits  you  have  formed  or  that  have 
been  formed  for  you,  that  you  are  bound  by  them  as 
with  chains  of  steel.  It  is  just  here  and  there  that  one 
finds  a  human  being  that  really  wants  to  be  human, 
and  is  willing  to  live  human  in  order  to  grow  into  the 
full  stature  of  normal  manhood  and  womanhood  as 
originally  designed  by  the  Great  Architect. 

For  all  that,  if  you  will  try  this  experiment  of 
right  living  just  one  month,  faithfully,  conscientiously, 
and  intelligently,  you  will  willingly  join  the  small  group 
of  mortals  who  are  earnestly  striving  to  live  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  physical  laws  of  their  being,  that 
they  may  by  so  living  have  more  abundant  life.  You 


MUST  WE  EAT  HOG  TO  LIVE?  121 


The  struggle  for  existence  in  an  adverse  environment. 


122       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

will  find  you  have  not  suffered  in  any  way,  unless 
merely  through  a  craving  of  your  abnormal  appetite 
for  abnormal  things, — just  the  same  way  a  toper  will 
suffer  when  his  dram  is  taken  away  from  him.  But 
your  physical  body  will  be  in  better  trim  than  it  was 
at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  am  not  asking  you  to  give 
up  anything  that  is  really  good  for  you,  not  even  the 
gratification  of  your  appetite,  for  you  will  find  that 
the  right  kind  of  food  for  you  is  best  relished,  once 
you  get  your  system  straightened  out  and  used  to  it. 
You  will  find — but  what's  the  use  telling  you,  when 
you  can  make  the  experiment  and  find  out  these  things 
for  yourself? 

Listen!  If  people  will  live  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  their  physical  being,  they  will  always  be  well, 
for  health  is  the  normal  condition,  and  disease  always 
comes  from  disobedience  to  law,  usually  through  ig- 
norance, but  that  does  not  save  you  from  the  conse- 
quences. 

Listen  again!  If  you  will  really  apply  some  of 
these  things  I  am  telling  you  to  your  own  life,  you 
will  soon  forget  the  doctor's  telephone  number. 

Maybe  you  don't  think  these  things  worth  while, 
as  compared  with  the  extreme  pleasure  of  eating  pig, 
— and  paying  doctors'  bills.  Well,  you  may  side  in 
with  the  pig,  to  get  the  pig  "inside"  of  you,  but  as 
for  myself,  I  prefer  health  and  strength,  and  to  stop 
the  sacrifice  of  the  pig;  and  if  you  will  leave  it  to  the 
pig,  you  will  find  that  even  a  pig  can  see  the  force  of 
my  argument,  and  will  vote  for  the  speedy  coming  of 
the  day  when  no  man  will  so  debase  himself  as  to  seek 


MUST  WE  EAT  HOG  TO  LIVE?  123 

to  draw  his  life  energy  from  a  poor  pig,  or  a  fat  one 
either. 

Joking  aside — why  not  try  it  out,  not  the  pig,  but 
the  one  month  experiment  living  on  two  meals  of 
"innocent  food,"  fruits,  nuts,  and  milk. 

You  need  not  confine  yourself  strictly  to  the  above ; 
honey,  cheese,  and  vegetables  may  be  added,  celery, 
carrots,  turnips,  cabbage,  etc., — all  eaten  in  their  nat- 
ural stage,  and  thoroughly  masticated.  You  can  add 
graham  crackers  also  for  the  honey,  and  a  fresh  raw 
egg  whipped  in  your  milk.  Oh,  don't  worry,  you  are 
not  going  to  starve;  you  are  just  going  to  give  your 
system  a  chance  to  straighten  out  and  get  normal. 

Be  very  careful  not  to  overeat,  by  thoroughly  mas- 
ticating everything;  if  you  do  this,  you  will  never 
overeat.  And  don't  forget  this,  that  overeating  good 
food  is  just  as  bad  as  eating  poor  food.  To  stop  eat- 
ing pig,  and  then  make  a  pig  of  yourself, — that  won't 
do  at  all.  There  are  pigs  enough  already  without 
your  adding  yourself  to  the  list. 

It  will  probably  take  some  time  to  shrink  your 
"tummy"  down  to  normal  proportions  so  that  a  rea- 
sonable amount  of  food  will  seem  to  "fill"  it.  It  is 
really  disgraceful  how  some  people  have  stuffed  and 
stuffed  and  stuffed  their  poor  "tummies"  till  they  have 
spread  out  all  over  the  front  of  them,  and  they  look 
like  balloons  with  legs  on  'em.  We  even  find  people 
who  are  actually  proud  of  these  abnormally  stretched 
abdomens.  If  you  have  one,  don't  boast  about  it  any 
more;  it  is  simply  the  evidence  of  gluttony,  if  you 
will  permit  the  plain  statement,  and  also  the  evidence 
of  disease.  Some  fat  may  be  permissible  as  stored 


124       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

food,  but  any  amount  of  it  that  distorts  the  human 
form  is  not  only  undesirable  but  dangerous.  The 
normal  human  figure  is  neither  fat  nor  skinny,  but 
well  rounded  and  graceful,  athletic,  and  mobile.  Such 
a  figure  is  best  built  and  sustained  on  natural  food, 
such  as  old  Mother  Nature  herself  provides  ready, 
agreeable,  nourishing,  and  procurable  without  cruelty 
or  the  shedding  of  blood. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

There  are  people  who  maintain  that  three  or  four 
hours'  sleep  each  night  is  sufficient,  and  that  most  of 
the  race  are  wasting  a  good  deal  of  valuable  time  in 
this  manner.  Examples  of  noted  men  are  cited  who 
have  lived  with  just  a  few  hours  of  sleep  in  the  twenty- 
four, — but  most  of  these  men  have  died  young. 

The  writer  believes  that  at  least  eight  hours,  and 
in  some  cases  more,  of  dreamless  sleep  is  desirable. 
Sleep  is  the  great  restorer  of  fagged-out  energy; 
during  this  period  the  body  recuperates  its  strength 
and  gets  itself  in  trim  for  the  wakeful  period  of 
activity. 

The  first  hours  of  the  morning  after  sleep  are  the 
best  for  hard  mental  and  physical  tasks.  At  this 
period  the  body  is  at  the  apex  of  its  strength,  and  it 
is  a  shame  that  so  many  people  insult  it  by  this  harm- 
ful "breakfast  habit,"  and  at  once  start  the  organs  on 
their  daily  grind  to  eliminate  the  food  that  is  stuffed 
into  it,  regardless  of  whether  it  needs  food  or  not. 

There  is  certainly  much  confusion  of  ideas  on  this 


126       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

question  of  feeding  the  body.  Some  people  seem  to 
think  that  the  body  immediately  consumes  the  food 
given  it  and  transfers  it  into  energy.  This  is  a  serious 
mistake.  You  get  no  energy  from  the  food  you  eat 
at  the  time  you  eat  it,  or  for  hours  and  hours  after- 
wards, and  you  consume  energy  in  the  digestive  proc- 
ess, energy  that  you  often  might  better  consume  in 
other  ways. 

Take  this  as  a  suggestion  and  work  it  out  by  ex- 
perimentation. If  you  have  a  large  task  to  perform, 
mental  or  physical,  do  it  on  an  empty  stomach.  If  you 
want  to  collect  your  thoughts  and,  say,  write  an  article 
that  embodies  the  best  that  is  in  you,  do  it  early  in  the 
morning,  and  before  you  have  tasted  food,  excepting  a 
copious  intake  of  the  fresh  morning  air.  If  you  are  to 
deliver  a  lecture  and  wish  to  have  the  best  command 
of  all  your  faculties  and  vocal  powers,  do  not  eat  for 
at  least  five  or  six  hours  preceding  this  lecture. 

The  business  world  is  full  of  mental  wrecks 
verging  on  nervous  prostration ;  nine-tenths  of  this 
comes  from  the  bad  habit  of  working  the  brain 
and  the  stomach  at  the  same  time ;  it  can't  be  done 
successfully  and  without  injury. 

Bear  this  in  mind:  whenever  you  have  a  mental 
task  that  is  a  severe  strain:  eat  very  sparingly,  if  at 
all,  and  you  will  come  through  it  admirably.  The 
reasons  are  that  in  great  mental  activity  the  blood  and 
vital  forces  rush  to  the  head,  where  they  are  needed, 
and  if  one  has  food  in  the  stomach  it  is  apt  to  sour  or 
be  very  improperly  taken  care  of,  or  if  taken  care  of 
properly,  the  head  suffers,  on  the  basis  that  one  can't 
d.0  two  important  things  well  at  the  sanie  time- 


MISCELLANEOUS  POINTS 


127 


Never  eat  when  worried  or  mentally  distressed. 


128       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

For  brain  workers  this  question  of  overeating  is 
far  more  important  than  many  will  concede.  The  hard 
manual  worker  can  use  up  a  good  deal  of  food  in 
exercise,  though  he  also  has  a  tendency  to  overeat,  be- 
cause much  of  the  food  is  not  what  the  system  should 
have,  and  a  greater  bulk  is  consumed  in  order  to  get 
the  needed  elements,  and  also  because  of  cultivated 
habit.  But  the  office  and  factory,  clerks  and  indoor 
workers  almost  invariably  eat  too  much,  especially  the 
sedentary  brain  workers. 

People  have  blindly  accepted  the  theory  that  food 
gives  strength,  without  understanding  that  it  is  only 
under  certain  conditions  that  it  gives  strength,  and 
these  conditions  are  that  it  be  properly  assimilated. 
Any  food  that  is  taken  into  the  system  and  not  assimi- 
lated gives  no  strength  and  is  an  element  of  weakness, 
requiring  the  expenditure  of  strength  to  eliminate  it. 

A  small  amount  of  food  may  give  more  strength 
than  a  large  amount,  just  the  same  as  a  small  amount 
of  gasoline  properly  mixed  with  air  will  give  a  stronger 
power  explosion  than  a  large  amount.  If  you  run  an 
automobile,  just  cover  the  air  intake  on  the  carburetor 
and  see  how  soon  the  engine  will  foul  and  stop  com- 
pletely. Here  is  the  secret  of  food  combustion  as  well : 
we  must  learn  to  use  more  air  and  water  and  less  solid 
food.  It  is  really  remarkable  when  you  know  how 
very  little  food  will  supply  the  body  with  its  maximum 
vitality  and  strength. 

Nature  does  her  best  to  take  up  the  oversupply  of 
material  forced  upon  her.  With  many  she  manufac- 
tures this  into  fatty  tissue,  and  as  a  result  we  see  peo- 
ple whose  abdomens  are  abnormally  distended  and 


MISCELLANEOUS    POINTS  129 

whose  frame  is  covered  with  flabby  tissue.  Some  fat 
is  permissible,  just  enough  to  round  out  the  figure  in 
graceful  curves,  but  too  much  is  worse  than  none  at 
all.  Excessive  fat  is  not  an  evidence  of  health  but  of 
disease.  Most  fat  people  could  fast  a  couple  of 
months  with  great  benefit,  and  suffer  very  little,  for 
they  would  simply  consume  the  stored  food  of  their 
bodies ;  as  Upton  Sinclair  says,  "This  is  hardly  to  be 
called  a  fast." 

With  most  people  appetite  is  altogether  abnormal ; 
the  more  they  eat  the  more  they  want;  they  never 
feel  satisfied  until  the  stomach  is  filled  to  its  fullest 
capacity,  and  extended  far  beyond  its  normal  size. 
When  the  body  is  perfectly  normal,  just  a  very  little 
food  satisfies;  there  is  no  craving  and  no  desire  to 
fill  up  the  stomach  like  a  bag  or  a  small  balloon. 

With  many  there  is  a  constant  craving  for  food, 
even  a  full  stomach  does  not  stop  it.  The  system, 
starving  for  nourishment,  has  reached  a  stage  of  over- 
stuffing that  uses  all  its  powers  to  eliminate  the  great 
gobs  of  food  that  are  piled  inside  the  stomach  and 
from  which  no  vital  energy  is  assimilated.  This  is  a 
serious  state  to  get  into ;  acute  dyspepsia  follows  when 
finally  the  stomach  refuses  the  food,  or  it  causes  great 
distress.  The  way  out  is  simple  enough :  clean  out  and 
tone  up  your  system  by  a  thorough  fast,  and  then  live 
right  when  you  start  in  eating  again,  eating  moderately 
such. food  as  is  proper,  and  being  careful  to  eliminate 
all  waste  regularly. 

With  regard  to  the  question  of  sleep,  by  all  means 
sleep  outdoors  if  you  can,  or  as  nearly  outdoors  as  you 
can,  and  this  means  have  all  the  windows,  and  doors 


130       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

too,  open  throughout  the  night.  Sleep  at  least  eight 
hours,  and  sleep  at  night — it  is  the  natural  time  to 
sleep;  only  owls  and  bats  and  skunks  prowl  around 
nights.  If  you  have  any  "prowling"  to  do,  get  through 
with  it  in  the  early  part  of  the  evening  and  see  to  it 
that  you  are  snugly  tucked  away  in  bed  at  least  some- 
time before  midnight.  This  "open  all  night"  stunt  is 
just  another  evidence  of  how  abnormal  man  has  be- 
come. We  are  certainly  "going  some"  these  days,  but 
we  are  headed  straight  for  an  early  grave ;  it's  time  to 
put  on  the  brakes.  Remember  this:  most  any  fool 
can  run  an  automobile  at  high  speed  over  rough  roads 
for  a  short  while,  but  it  isn't  good  for  the  machine, 
nor  can  one  negotiate  such  roads  as  well  in  the  night 
as  in  the  daytime. 

You  may  have  to  run  your  body  over  rough  roads ; 
if  so,  it  needs  all  the  more  care  that  you  may  pull 
it  through  without  injury.  This  body  is  indeed  a  won- 
derful machine,  but  the  way  some  people  run  their 
bodies  it  is  really  a  mystery  to  me  that  they  last  as 
long  as  they  do. 

If  it's  worth  while  to  live  one  hundred  years  in 
full  possession  of  one's  bodily  powers  and  mental  ac- 
tivity, it's  worth  paying  the  price  in  obedience  to  na- 
ture's laws — at  any  rate,  it's  the  only  way  that  will 
accomplish  the  trick,  so  you  can  pay  your  money  and 
take  your  choice. 


CHAPTER  XV 

From  the  standpoint  of  normal  nature  we  have 
become  so  abnormal  that  there  are  some  questions  of 
fundamental  and  vital  importance  that  have  to  do  with 
the  very  perpetuity  of  the  race  itself,  that  are  now 
considered  indecent,  improper,  and  "unmentionable." 

Whenever  the  question  of  "sex"  is  raised  in  a  mixed 
audience,  the  old  grannies  throw  up  their  hands  in  holy 
horror,  the  middle-aged  people  look  cold  and  unap- 
provingly at  you,  and  the  young  people  blush  and  look 
disturbed  and  silly. 

You  can  talk  on  most  any  question  but  this  one; 
here  you  are  supposed  to  hold  your  tongue  and  keep 
whatever  knowledge  you  possess,  good  or  bad,  to 
yourself. 

I  want  to  say  right  here  that  this  attitude  of  mind 
is  causing  more  trouble  in  the  world  than  anything 
else  I  can  mention;  it  is  the  height  of  folly,  and  it  is 
time  that  sensible  people  refuse  to  hold  their  tongues 


132       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

when  the  very  heavens  cry  out  against  the  evils  of  the 
abnormal  sex  expression  that  is  undermining  the  very 
foundation  of  civic  life  and  individual  character. 

I  boldly  maintain  that  the  question  of  sex  and  the 
propagation  of  the  race  is  NOT  an  indecent  question, 
except  in  an  indecent  mind,  that  has  become  so  per- 
verted that  it  can  not  hold  a  pure  thought.  It  is  im- 
portant that  proper  knowledge  be  no  longer  sup- 
pressed, but  that  we  come  out  boldly  and  call  a  spade 
a  spade.  Men  and  women  should  discuss  these  ques- 
tions rationally  with  each  other  and  their  children,  that 
the  race  may  be  governed  by  wisdom,  and  coming 
generations  saved  from  the  folly  and  disease  that 
comes  from  the  abuse  of  the  sex  functions. 

The  subject  of  sex  is  one  that  permeates  all  na- 
ture. The  neuter  gender  seems  to  be  only  a  gram- 
matical phrase,  for  wherever  there  is  created  life  there 
is  sex — in  the  animal,  the  vegetable,  and  its  counter- 
part even  in  the  mineral  world. 

The  purpose  of  nature  in  this  matter,  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  species,  is  of  no  less  importance  with  re- 
gard to  man  than  it  is  with  regard  to  animals  and 
vegetables,  and  yet  our  government  spends  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  yearly  studying  the  question 
of  the  sex  and  breeding  of  hogs,  and  not  a  penny  in 
trying  to  discover  how  to  raise  a  noble  specimen  of 
manhood. 

Should  a  chicken  or  a  calf  break  out  with  some 
vile  or  dangerous  disease,  the  government  sends  a 
dozen  experts  to  study  into  the  matter  and  try  to  de- 
vise a  remedy.  But  the  human  race  is  affected  by  a 
score  of  vile  and  body-destroying  diseases  that  come 


THE  LAWS  OF  SEX  133 

from  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  proper  functions 
of  sex,  and  not  a  penny  is  spent  in  any  systematic 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  people's  representatives  to 
find  and  eradicate  the  causes  and  get  rid  of  the  ef- 
fects. The  victims  are  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
patent-medicine  venders  and  quacks,  not  to  mention 
the  "regular"  practicing  physicians,  who  make  a  great 
part  of  their  money  in  this  way.  There  is  no  other 
class  of  disease  where  the  victim  pays  so  liberally  for 
relief — and  gets  so  little. 

Admitted  that  the  question  is  not  an  easy  one  to 
handle,  this  does  not  prove  that  no  attempt  should 
be  made,  and  that  helpful  knowledge  should  be  with- 
held, especially  from  the  children,  who  contract  all 
manner  of  wrong  sex  habits  through  ignorance,  and 
through  the  harmful  example  and  teaching  of  other 
children  and  grown  people  equally  ignorant. 

Admitted  that  if  right  knowledge  was  given  out 
many  would  not  follow  it,  still  it  would  act  as  a  check, 
and  in  the  course  of  time  right  teaching  will  be  fol- 
lowed by  right  acting.  It  could  hardly  be  expected 
that  a  matter  that  has  been  permitted  to  grow  into 
such  grave  and  dangerous  proportions  is  to  be  imme- 
diately brought  back  into  right  channels. 

The  start  should  be  made  with  the  children,  who 
should  be  taught  in  the  public  schools  the  functions  of 
sex  and  the  danger  of  abusing  the  sex  organs,  and 
they  should  be  taught  this  at  a  very  early  age,  as  early 
as  the  abuses  commence  to  be  manifested.  The  most 
careful  text-books  should  be  prepared  and  if  necessary, 
special  teachers  employed  who  are  capable  of  giving 
the  proper  knowledge  on  this  most  proper  subject. 


134       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

I  once  listened  to  a  man  who  was  lecturing  under 
the  auspices  of  "The  League  for  Medical  Freedom." 
I  was  much  in  sympathy  with  some  of  the  purposes  of 
the  league,  had  even  subscribed  my  name  as  a  pros- 
pective member.  After  I  heard  this  man,  who  was  a 
high-up  official  in  the  movement,  I  was  thoroughly 
disgusted.  The  greater  part  of  his  talk  was  taken  up 
trying  to  prove  that  the  movement  to  teach  sex  hy- 
giene in  the  public  schools  is  dangerous,  and  that  such 
knowledge  should  be  given  children  only  by  their  par- 
ents. 

Admitting  that  it  would  be  desirable  for  the  par- 
ents to  give  this  knowledge,  how  are  parents  to  give 
what  they  have  not  got.  The  parents  of  children  are 
as  much  in  need  of  being  taught  as  the  children,  and 
the  teachers  should  be  given  a  chance  to  teach  the 
parents  through  the  children,  if  they  can't  be  reached 
in  any  other  manner, — and  in  my  judgment  the  text- 
books should  be  so  designed  that  the  interest  and  co- 
operation of  the  parents  is  also  brought  into  action. 

It  could  hardly  be  expected  that  in  the  brief  space 
at  my  command  I  could  go  into  an  exhaustive  treat- 
ment of  this  subject.  There  are  numerous  books  that 
are  procurable  that  will  give  any  person  desiring  same 
the  needed  knowledge  and  warning  regarding  the  sex 
nature.  I  would  feel,  however,  that  the  purpose  of 
these  articles  would  not  be  subserved  unless  a  few 
fundamental  principles  were  elucidated. 

In  the  first  place  there  seems  to  be  but  one  purpose 
of  sex,  as  exemplified  in  nature,  and  that  is  the  propa- 
gation of  the  species.  If  you  will  study  through  the 
animal  kingdom,  you  will  find  that  the  sex  functions 


THE  LAWS  OF  SEX  135 

are  only  brought  into  play  for  this  specific  reason,  un- 
less it  is  among  the  animals  that  have  associated  with 
man.  The  domestic  animals  have  been  known  to  be- 
come abnormal  along  sex  lines,  in  fact  they  have  been 
taught  by  man  to  be  abnormal.  But  with  thousands 
of  years  of  abnormal  breeding  the  chickens  still  aver- 
age about  as  many  roosters  as  hens,  and  the  same  is 
true  of  other  animals  where  one  male  serves  a  num- 
ber of  females.  You  can  change  the  size,  the  color, 
and  the  general  form  of  the  species ;  you  can  develop 
an  animal  or  fowl  that  has  no  seeming  resemblance  to 
its  progenitors,  but  you  can't  change  a  fundamental 
law  of  sex  or  even  modify  it,  though  you  can  pervert 
its  immediate  expression. 

This  may  be  laid  down  as  absolutely  true :  the  sex 
fluid  is  more  important  to  the  male  organism  than 
many  times  its  quantity  in  blood ;  that  it  has  its  func- 
tion in  building  the  character  of  the  boy  and  making 
a  man  of  him;  it  gives  him  the  male  voice  and  the 
male  courage  and  the  male  strength.  The  loss  of  this 
fluid  saps  his  very  life  energy  and  makes  of  him  only 
a  "thing"  that  might  have  been  a  man.  And  it  is  for 
this  very  reason,  sex  abuse,  that  we  have  so  many 
"things"  and  so  few  men ;  and  yet  we  are  not  saving 
our  boys  or  making  one  sensible  concerted  effort  to 
bring  to  them  the  knowledge  that  is  of  such  very  great 
importance  to  them,  individually  and  to  the  entire  race. 

Let  it  be  said  with  shame  to  us  as  a  race  that  the 
practice  of  self-abuse  at  some  time  in  life  is  almost 
universal  with  both  sexes,  and  has  led  to  untold  misery 
and  race  deterioration. 

One    might    live   an    otherwise   model    life,    and 


136       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

through  this  avenue  of  sex  gratification  tear  down 
the  body  and  the  mind  and  the  character  as  well;  in 
fact,  destroy  all  that  is  desirable  in  the  human,  that 
distinguishes  it  above  the  other  animals.  In  this  way 
the  human  animal  descends,  not  to  the  plane  of  the 
beast,  which  in  nature  is  normal  and  right,  but  far 
below  the  plane  of  the  beast,  for  the  depths  of  human 
degradation  take  hold  of  hell  itself. 

The  sex  appetite  once  started  becomes  an  abnor- 
mal craving  the  same  as  the  appetite  for  whisky  or 
morphine,  though  worse.  The  victim,  for  one  is  cer- 
tainly a  "victim"  in  the  clutches  of  any  abnormal  ap- 
petite, in  this,  as  in  all  others,  reasons  with  himself 
that  it  is  natural,  and  hence  excusable  and  right ;  thus 
is  the  pathway  to  reform  blocked  and  the  pathway  to 
ruin  made  straight  and  wide.  But  with  all  his  reason- 
ing there  is  always  the  mental  conviction  that  the 
thing  is  not  right,  and  hence  the  secrecy  that  attaches 
to  such  matters. 

Parents  very  often  delude  themselves  into  the  be- 
lief that  their  children  are  safe  from  these  bad  habits, 
when  at  the  very  time  their  children's  lives  are  being 
ruined.  The  need  of  knowledge,  absolute,  specific, 
strongly  impressed  knowledge,  is  universal ;  no  child 
is  safe  without  it,  and  not  one  in  a  thousand  will  es- 
cape the  cultivation  of  these  harmful,  life-sapping, 
character-destroying  habits  unless  they  are  saved  from 
them.  Oh  the  shame  of  it,  that  we  have  made  so  little 
effort  to  save  the  race  right  here  at  the  fountain-head 
of  its  very  being! 

Politics  is  supposed  to  be  a  "bad"  question,  though 
why  "the  science  of  government"  should  be  called  bad 


THE  LAWS  OF  SEX 


137 


The  human  trinity  divine — father,  mother,  child! 


138       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

may  probably  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  so- 
called  "good"  people  allow  the  so-called  "bad"  people 
to  run  things  largely  to  suit  themselves.  Here  "eter- 
nal vigilance"  is  still  the  price  of  liberty.  The  dispo- 
sition of  good  people  to  let  bad  conditions  alone  does 
not  help  to  make  the  bad  conditions  any  better;  and 
the  disposition  of  all  the  people  to  keep  from  an  open 
discussion  of  this  sex  question  does  not  help  the  mat- 
ter, but  is  a  tacit  acknowledgment  that  things  are 
either  right  as  they  are,  or  else  that  people  do  not  care 
whether  they  are  right  or  not. 

On  this  question,  which  is  so  rotten  bad  that  poli- 
tics smells  sweet  beside  it,  there  seems  to  be  a  feeling 
of  hopelessness, — that  nothing  can  be  done,  that  the 
wrongs  will  continue  in  spite  of  any  effort  to  check 
them.  This,  in  the  humble  judgment  of  the  writer,  is 
a  sad  mistake,  and  it  is  directly  contrary  to  logic  and 
fact.  To  allow  people  to  remain  ignorant  of  the  nor- 
mal functions  of  sex  and  the  importance  of  obeying 
nature's  laws  is  certainly  no  way  to  help  bring  about 
a  better  condition,  and  especially  to  withhold  this 
knowledge  from  the  children  borders  on  criminal  neg- 
lect. 

There  was  a  time  when  drinking  alcoholic  liquors 
was  an  almost  universal  custom ;  when  every  grocery 
store  sold  whisky  the  same  as  it  sold  sugar;  when 
even  the  clergy  had  to  make  rules  keeping  its  mem- 
bers from  overindulgence.  Education  has  brought  the 
people  to  realize  the  injurious  effects  of  alcohol  on  the 
system,  and  has  hastened  the  day  when  alcoholic  drinks 
will  not  be  consumed  by  any  one.  Right  now  the 
majority  of  the  people  are  opposed  to  the  manufacture 


THE  LAWS  OF  SEX  139 

and  sale  of  such  drinks,  and  even  the  victims  are 
longing  to  be  free. 

The  sex  abuses  are  more  deeply  rooted  and  more 
harmful,  making  it  the  more  important  that  the  work 
of  education  be  started  at  once  and  pushed  with  vigor, 
for  the  very  life  of  the  race  is  here  at  stake. 

Even  the  marriage  state  today  is  little  less  than 
legalized  prostitution.  The  male  forces  his  abnormal 
attention  on  the  female  against  every  principle  of 
animal  ethics.  Women  are  slowly  and  painfully  mur- 
dered in  this  way,  and  the  voice  of  protest  is  smoth- 
ered in  a  "conventional  modesty"  that  is  false  as  hell. 

How  long  it  will  take  the  race  to  cast  aside  its 
prudery  and  face  this  grave  question  of  normal  sex 
life,  with  courage  and  a  determination  to  return  to  a 
proper  exercise  of  the  sex  functions,  I  do  not  know , 
I  only  feel  that  the  matter  is  of  such  grave  importance 
that  no  one  who  believes  in  right  living  can  longer 
keep  silent. 

I  believe  in  boys  and  girls  and  men  and  women 
associating  together  in  the  closest  friendship  and  com- 
radeship, and  that  the  sex  function  should  make  the 
men  gallant,  courteous,  and  the  courageous  protectors 
of  the  women,  and  the  women  gracious  and  lovable. 
And  I  believe  and  know  that  through  the  cultivation 
of  these  higher  feelings  of  friendship,  love,  and  re- 
spect, and  close  comradeship,  the  grosser  appetites 
will  be  retarded  and  a  purer  plane  of  expression  be 
reached. 

I  am  convinced  that  woman  should  be  given  a 
much  broader  freedom  than  she  now  enjoys  and  the 
right  and  power  to  control  her  own  body,  and  tnis 


140       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

means  economic  independence  from  man,  who  has 
degraded  her  to  his  wishes  because  of  his  economic 
power  over  her.  The  complete  enfranchisement  of  the 
women  is  the  first  step,  but  there  are  many  others  that 
must  be  taken  before  the  race  reaches  any  right  plane 
of  expression  on  this  very  important  phase  of  being. 

I  would  like  to  say  more,  but  having  already  said 
more  than  enough  to  everlastingly  damn  me  in  the 
eyes  of  the  prudes,  perhaps  it  is  well  that  I  desist  be- 
fore they  have  me  arrested  for  using  "indecent  lan- 
guage" or  on  some  other  flimsy  pretext  that  has  been 
employed  to  smother  the  voice  of  intelligent  protest 
against  the  wrong  use  of  the  sex  organs.  Thanks  be, 
there  are  a  few  voices  howling  in  the  wilderness,  and 
the  light  will  yet  dawn  and  men  and  women  will  walk 
together  in  purity  and  more  abundant  life,  and  children 
will  be  brought  into  the  world  who  are  the  product 
of  love  instead  of  lust. 

NOTE. — I  am  pleased  to  acknowledge  that  several 
cities  and  some  state  health  boards  are  taking  up  some 
of  these  great  questions  in  an  educational  way.  The 
Indiana  State  Board  of  Health,  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  has 
published  a  pamphlet  on  "Social  Hygiene  vs.  The  Sex 
Plagues"  that  is  most  commendable,  and  can  be  had 
for  a  two-cent  stamp  for  postage.  Don't  fail  to  send 
for  one  or  more. 


Suggestion; 
<me  NcwThot 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  failure  of  the  old-line  practitioners  to  cure 
disease,  or  to  even  materially  lessen  its  hold  on  the 
bodies  of  men,  has  resulted  in  recent  years  in  a  general 
distrust  of  the  methods  of  the  "doctor."  This  has 
opened  up  a  chance  for  new  methods  of  treatment  to 
get  a  hearing,  and  not  infrequently  a  chance  to  dem- 
onstrate. 

The  old-line  medical  school  instead  of  conquering 
old  diseases,  is  finding  new  ones  all  the  time,  and 
"business  continues  to  be  pretty  good,  thank  you," — 
even  though  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
people  are  really  finding  health  in  sane  methods  of 
living,  such  as  taught  by  Physical  Culture  and  other 
health  publications,  and  by  abstinence  from  medicines 
and  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the 
physical  body. 

The  first  break  from  the  old  school  was  Home- 
opathy. Briefly,  it  works  largely  on  the  same  basis, 
only  it  believes  in  "small  doses"  of  medicine, — may 
Allah  be  praised  for  even  that  concession  from  the 
"dope  fiends." 

I  have  already  tried  to  explain  that  the  body  is  a 


142       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

machine,  and  that  the  machine  must  be  taken  care  of 
properly,  otherwise  it  will  suffer  injury.  The  ma- 
chine of  steel  and  wood  may  suffer  injury  and  has  no 
way  to  tell  about  it  other  than  a  squeak  or  a  failure 
to  operate ;  the  physical  body  has  a  way  to  inform  the 
soul,  the  driver  of  the  machine,  that  something  is  out 
of  order,  and  pain  is  the  way. 

There  is  never  a  pain  in  the  body  but  that  there  is 
some  cause  for  the  pain ;  the  pain  is  not  the  disease,  it 
is  but  the  evidence  of  it,  the  voice  of  protest,  so  to 
speak.  For  centuries  the  "doctors"  have  been  trying 
to  stifle  pain.  In  this  they  are  the  worst  opponents  of 
"free  speech"  the  world  has  ever  known. 

A  large  dose  of  morphine  will  put  the  body  out  of 
pain  forever,  a  small  one  will  silence  this  voice  of  pro- 
test, but  morphine  is  a  poison  to  the  human  machine 
and  will  never  eradicate  the  cause  of  pain,  and  should 
never  be  taken ;  and  yet  it  is  one  of  the  "doctors'  "  pet 
remedies. 

Many  quacks  have  built  up  great  reputations  on 
their  ability  to  immediately  stifle  pain,  the  voice  of 
protest.  As.  soon  as  the  body  gets  free  from  the  ef- 
fects of  the  "drugs"  that  have  been  administered,  pain 
again  speaks  and  tries  to  tell  the  soul  that  something 
is  wrong,  and  the  dear  "doctor"  is  again  called  in  to 
smother  this  pleading  voice  of  nature  that  is  trying  its 
best  to  save  the  body  from  permanent  injury  or  de- 
struction. 

Get  this :  when  men  and  women  learn  to  live  right, 
they  will  cease  to  suffer  from  bodily  pain,  and  not 
before. 

One  might  also  "deny"  pain  and  succeed  in  psy- 


MIND  AND  WILL-POWER  143 

chologizing  one's  body  to  the  extent  that  the  voice  of 
pain  could  not  be  heard,  but  even  that,  while  it  has 
its  advantages  in  that  no  villainous  poisons  are  in- 
jected into  the  system,  still  has  its  disadvantage  in 
that  it  borders  on  insanity,  in  fact  is  a  mild  species 
of  mental  disorder.  While  great  results  are  seemingly 
accomplished  through  mental  suggestion  alone,  it  is 
not  the  rational  or  sensible  method  of  getting  the  body 
rid  of  its  physical  disorders.  These  troubles  are  real, 
and  have  their  cause  in  wrong  living  and  disobedience 
of  the  great  fundamental  laws  of  our  physical  being. 
If  pain  tells  you  that  your  body  is  ill,  listen  to  its 
voice  of  protest  and  at  once  try  to  find  out  why  it  is 
ill.  Here  is  the  proper  function  of  the  mind ;  through 
your  reasoning  faculties  you  may  be  able  to  discover 
the  cause  of  your  trouble,  though  this  is  not  always 
possible.  Even  though  you  are  not  able  to  definitely 
locate  just  what  particular  thing  you  have  done  to 
cause  your  distressed,  dis-eased,  un-easy  state  of  body, 
your  mind,  if  permitted  to  act  normally,  will  at  least 
reach  the  conclusion  that  you  have  done  something 
sometime.  The  system  may  not  enter  its  protest  until 
some  time  after  the  cause,  which  may  be  cumulative, 
for  you  now  know  of  the  wonderful  "surplus  energy" 
that  the  body  stores,  and  how  it  draws  from  this,  and 
so  the  absolute  location  of  the  specific  cause  may  not 
be  possible.  But  here  again  "mind"  can  help  you,  for 
you  can  figure  it  out  to  a  certainty  that  the  pain  in 
your  body  is  the  result  of  either  some  accident  having 
happened  to  mutilate  some  part  of  the  body,  or  else 
because  of  some  improper  foreign  matter  that  can't 
be  eliminated,  or  else  because  of  an  overworked  and 


144       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

tired-out  state  that  has  permitted  nature's  destructive 
principles  to  gain  the  mastery  over  the  constructive 
principles  of  the  body  itself. 

And  be  it  known  that  these  destructive  prin- 
ciples are  ever  at  hand  in  the  form  of  disease  germs, 
and  that  any  body  that  is  not  kept  tuned  up  to  the 
proper  health  key  is  apt  at  any  time  to  be  subject  to 
their  attack.  If  the  body  has  sufficient  vitality,  it  will 
repel  these  disease  germs  without  any  harm  to  itself ; 
not  a  day  passes  but  that  we  take  in  enough  germs  to 
kill  an  army — provided  that  army  is  in  such  a  weak- 
ened state  of  physical  resistance  that  the  men's  bodies 
could  not  repel  these  invisible  hosts. 

In  a  depleted  state  of  physical  health  the  germs 
find  an  easy  lodging-place,  and  a  battle  royal  is  the 
result.  Sometimes  the  germs  win,  and  then  the  body 
is  dead ;  sometimes  the  body  wins,  and  the  germs  are 
cast  out,  and  then  some  "doctor"  usually  gets  the 
credit,  though  he  deserves  none  at  all  unless  he  has 
helped  to  build  up  the  resisting  powers  of  the  body  by 
sensible  advice  as  to  food,  breathing,  etc.,  which  he  sel- 
dom does. 

Now  listen  again :  germs  will  never  find  a  lodging- 
place  in  a  perfectly  healthy  body,  unless  that  body  is 
inoculated  by  direct  contact  or  by  vaccination,  or  some 
such  process,  and  even  then  the  bodily  resistance  being 
normal,  the  battle  is  usually  one  of  short  duration. 

The  body  that  is  not  in  perfect  health  is  always 
subject  to  disease  germs;  they  find  in  the  body  the 
very  food  on  which  they  thrive  in  the  form  of  refuse 
that  the  physical  organs  have  not  been  able  to  elimi- 
nate. 


MIND  AND  WILL-POWER  145 

Now  use  the  mind  again  and  it  will  tell  you  that  if 
germs  are  cast  out  of  a  healthy  body  without  harm, 
and  find  lodging  in  the  unexcreted  refuse  of  a  weak- 
ened body,  that  the  thing  to  do  first,  when  the  body 
gets  diseased,  is  to  get  rid  of  all  refuse  in  the  body. 
To  do  this  "granny"  used  to  give  us  a  dose  of  castor 
oil  or  epsom  salts,  and  she  had  the  right  idea,  though 
her  method  of  accomplishing  it  could  be  better  served 
today  by  the  water  enema. 

But  granny's  remedy  did  not  go  far  enough,  it  only 
eliminated  part  of  the  waste  matter  in  the  intestines 
and  colon,  while  every  organ  of  the  body  needed 
cleansing.  Here  the  fast  is  the  only  sensible  solution, 
and  it  is  nature's  solution.  Just  as  soon  as  you  get 
sick  nature  tries  her  best  to  have  you  stop  eating 
by  taking  away  your  appetite,  and  then  the  dear 
doctors  come  along  and  stuff  you  full  of  drugs,  and 
your  friends  do  their  best  to  tempt  you  to  eat  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  you  ought  not  to  take  a  thing, 
thus  giving  your  system  a  chance  to  clean  itself  out, 
as  it  will  readily  do  if  you  just  stop  insulting  it  with 
food  that  it  does  not  want. 

The  right  function  of  the  mind  is  to  treat  the  body 
rationally,  to  discover  its  troubles  and  to  eliminate 
the  cause  and  give  the  body  a  chance  to  eliminate 
the  effects.  Here  is  a  chance  to  exercise  the  will-power 
and  refrain  from  things  that  have  been  found  to  be 
harmful,  to  correct  bad  habits  and  appetites,  and  live 
normally. 

Here  again,  through  auto-suggestion,  is  a  chance 
for  the  mind  to  "suggest"  to  the  body  helpful  thoughts, 
and  give  the  body  intelligent  advice  and  direction. 


146       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

The  mind  has  a  great  power  over  the  body.  The 
mind  can  kill  the  body  instantly  if  it  so  chooses.  The 
mind  can  make  the  body  sick  by  unhealthful  sugges- 
tion, and  make  it  well  by  healthful  suggestion  in  line 
with  the  laws  of  the  physical  organism. 

The  mind  can  do  wonderful  things,  but  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  power  of  the  mind  over  this  physical  body, 
and  if  the  mind  does  not  work  normally  and  discover 
the  proper  laws  that  affect  the  body  in  which  it  lives, 
or  if  it  disregards  these  laws  wilfully  or  ignorantly, 
the  body  sooner  or  later  will  suffer. 

You  can  not  disobey  natural  laws  without  paying 
the  penalty  in  pain,  disease,  ill  health,  and  eventually 
in  death  itself. 

Live  right  and,  barring  accident,  you  may  surely 
live  a  hundred  years,  and  more ;  disobey  the  law  and 
you  will  die  young  in  spite  of  all  the  doctors  in  Chris- 
tendom, and  in  spite  of  all  the  mental  denials  you  make 
that  you  are  not  sick  and  that  only  your  "mortal 
mind"  is  in  distress. 

Just  in  plain  English  language,  let's  quit  our  fool- 
ishness and  through  the  mind  learn  the  laws  that  gov- 
ern our  physical  organism  on  the  earth  plane  and 
through  the  will-power  obey  them. 


The  §olutiori  of  the 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  normal  animal  in  a  normal  environment  func- 
tions normally;  it  lives  its  life  according  to  its  kind, 
eats  its  proper  food,  which  nature  supplies,  and  fights 
its  struggle  for  existence  with  the  elements  and  with 
its  natural  foes. 

Not  so  man,  who  undoubtedly  was  once  normal  as 
an  animal,  but  who  was  endowed  with  certain  powers 
of  mind  that  the  other  animals  did  not  possess,  and 
that  have  resulted  in  a  wonderful  mental  evolution 
that  has  changed  the  environment  and  also  affected  the 
body, — advantageously  in  some  respects  as  to  its  capa- 
bilities, its  deftness,  its  cleverness,  but  that  has  not 
as  yet  generally  bettered  its  health. 

Primitive  man  lived  in  an  entirely  different  environ- 
ment from  our  present  surroundings,  an  environment 
that  differed  mostly  in  that  it  was  a  direct  contact 
with  nature;  he  was  out  in  the  open  air  most  of  the 
time,  air  that  was  uncontaminated  by  dust  or  smoke 


148       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

or  any  of  the  foul  odors  that  civilization  is  con- 
stantly manufacturing;  his  body  was  free  to  move, 
because  unhampered  by  clothing;  his  entire  existence 
was  one  of  physical  activity,  and  we  can  logically  con- 
clude that  most  of  this  activity  was  of  a  healthful 
nature. 

This  is  not  saying  that  many  of  the  things  that  we 
have  today  and  that  are  the  result  of  centuries  of  evo- 
lution in  the  making  and  using  of  tools  are  not  desir- 
able. But  here  is  the  idea :  civilized  man  has  divorced 
himself  from  nature,  has  put  his  feet  in  a  leather 
box  and  covered  his  body  with  clothing,  has  built 
houses  and  shops,  and  is  now  living  a  "shut-in"  life, 
shut  in  from  the  healthful  outdoor  air  and  contact 
with  nature.  And  as  a  result,  civilized  man  is  living 
on  an  average  about  thirty-five  years,  and  is  sick  a 
good  deal  of  this  time. 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  present  age  to  say 
that  there  are  thousands  of  children  born  in  city 
slums  who  never  see  a  spear  of  green  grass,  a  flower 
or  a  tree,  and  who  only  occasionally  get  a  glimpse  of 
the  blue  sky  through  the  dense  clouds  of  city  smoke. 
These  children  are  the  victims  of  environment,  which 
moulds  their  young  lives  into  ways  of  vice  and  crime, 
and  disease  is  a  natural  result  of  their  enforced  sepa- 
ration from  nature;  even  the  savage  of  the  forest 
had  a  better  chance  in  the  struggle  for  existence  than 
they  can  ever  hope  to  have. 

To  go  to  people  in  this  situation  and  teach  them 
that  they  should  breathe  pure  air  and  live  normal  hu- 
man lives  is  to  add  insult  to  injury.  And  this  is  largely 
true  of  millions  of  members  of  the  working  class  who 


INDIVIDUAL  VS.  COLLECTIVE  EFFORT       149 


A   plea  for   the  innocent.     These   can   not   change  their 
environment,  but  it  will  change  them. 


150       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

are  "sentenced  for  life"  by  the  present  industrial  order 
to  live  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth,  or  in  foul- 
smelling  packing-house  districts,  or  crowded  in  un- 
sanitary factories,  or  in  some  way  to  spend  their 
lives  in  nerve-racking  and  body-destroying  toil. 

To  tell  a  man  he  should  eat  "pure  food"  helps  him 
very  little  when  his  financial  resources  enable  him  to 
procure  only  the  cheapest  kind  of  food,  and  most  of 
this  adulterated  with  something  cheaper. 

The  individual  must  ever  be  largely  controlled  by 
his  environment,  which  will  unquestionably  tend  to 
mould  his  life  into  certain  restricted  channels  of  oc- 
cupation, and  limit  his  mental  horizon  to  a  sphere  not 
much  greater  than  this  physical  limitations.  The  man 
whose  life  from  early  childhood  consists  in  getting 
up  early  in  the  morning  and  going  to  work,  tending  a 
machine, all  day  until  physically  exhausted,  and  going 
home  for  food  and  sleep,  to  enable  him  to  get  up  again 
in  the  morning  and  go  to  work,  can  not  be  said  to  live 
at  all;  he  merely  exists  for  the  purpose  of  exploita- 
tion. 

Should  he  cultivate  habits  that  are  vile,  should  he 
drink  and  chew  and  smoke  and  swear  and  be  bestial, 
who  is  to  blame?  Has  not  his  environment  been  a 
hotbed  for  the  development  of  abnormal  habits  and 
appetites  that  logically  go  with  an  abnormal  life? 

My  little  message,  "How  to  Live  a  Hundred 
Years,"  will  never  penetrate  into  the  depths  and  reach 
the  victims  of  our  present  industrial  order,  not  at  least 
as  long  as  they  are  "the  victims,"  though  the  day  of 
freedom  has  been  hearalded  and  the  writing  is  on  the 
wall.  No  civilization  is  worthy  of  the  name  that  pays 


INDIVIDUAL  VS.  COLLECTIVE  EFFORT       151 

so  little  attention  to  the  safeguarding  of  the  life  of 
its  citizenship  as  ours,  nor  can  an  industrial  system 
that  fairly  reeks  with  wrongs  to  those  who  toil,  per- 
petuate itself  indefinitely,  even  though  millions  of  the 
workers  are  crushed  beneath  the  point  of  resistance  and 
accept  without  protest  whatever  they  can  get  to  keep 
body  and  soul  together. 

Could  I  personally  go  to  each  victim  of  Mammon 
and  teach  him  that  by  right  living  he  could  live  one 
hundred  years  (the  task  would  be  indeed  a  stupendous 
one),  after  a  conviction  had  been  secured,  few  would 
care  to  prolong  their  miserable  existence  even  one 
hundred  days. 

Life  has  become  a  burden  to  millions  of  people 
under  the  present  capitalistic  regime,  so  much  so  that 
many  thousands  end  it.  The  papers  are  full  of  ac- 
counts of  suicide,  though  scientists  tell  us  that  the 
"love  of  life  is  the  strongest  passion  of  the  race." 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  occasionally  some  soul 
wiggles  its  way  up  through  the  muck  and  filth  of  a  hos- 
tile environment,  the  natural  law  is  that  the  majority 
will  be  subjugated  by  the  environment.  Individual 
man  is  largely  the  creature  of  his  environment;  it  is 
collective  man  only  who  is  the  creator  of  environment. 

It  is  collective  man  who  has  created  the  city  and  its 
slums,  the  workshops,  the  mills,  and  the  mines.  It  is 
collective  man  who  has  created  the  political  state,  and 
the  industrial  system  known  today  as  capitalism,  which 
uses  the  political  state  as  a  means  of  enforcing  its  in- 
dustrial regime.  It  is  collective  man  who  can  change 
what  he  has  created  or  recreate  anew  a  better  indus- 
trial state  founded  on  broader  principles,  and  taking 


152       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

into  account  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  welfare 
of  all  the  component  parts  that  go  to  make  up  the 
whole,  society. 

Until  such  a  state  is  established  the  average  length 
of  years  will  undoubtedly  keep  on  decreasing,  even 
though  at  the  present  time  there  are  thousands  who 
are  learning  the  secrets  of  how  to  live  properly,  and 
adding  many  years  to  their  individual  lives. 

In  spite  of  a  hostile  environment,  an  environment 
that  should  be  changed  by  intelligent  collective  effort, 
it  is  possible  for  many  to  save  themselves  from  early 
destruction,  and  eventually  to  save  the  race. 

There  is  only  one  proper  way  to  die, — of  a  ripe  old 
age,  like  the  ripe  peach  falls  from  the  tree.  Any 
person  who  dies  younger  than  one  hundred  years  is 
a  victim  either  to  the  adverse  environment  of  the  age 
in  which  we  live,  or  else  to  ignorance,  which  may 
easily  result  from  a  wrong  environment. 

For  all  that,  having  the  knowledge  that  this  little 
book  has  given  you,  there  is  no  longer  any  excuse 
for  you,  as  an  individual,  to  continue  to  live  in  a  way 
that  is  destructive  of  your  physical  body.  You  may 
not  be  able  to  undo  all  the  wrongs  of  the  past,  but  you 
can  at  least  stop  murdering  yourself  and  live  right 
from  this  on.  You  can  easily  add  ten,  twenty,  or 
forty  years  to  your  life  by  right  living,  even  in  the 
midst  of  a  hostile  environment ;  and  you  can  do  better 
than  that,  you  can  become  a  definite  factor  in  changing 
that  environment  and  helping  not  only  to  free  your- 
self but  all  mankind. 

If  this  book  has  started  you  to  thinking  along  the 
line  of  "right  living,"  it  has  served  the  purpose  of  the 


INDIVIDUAL  VS.  COLLECTIVE  EFFORT       153 

author.  If  you  feel  that  you  have  received  any  benefit 
from  the  ideas  expressed  herein,  he  will  be  greatly 
pleased  to  have  you  pass  them  along  to  some  person 
whom  you  think  may  be  interested. 

If  you  should  be  induced  to  practice  some  of  the 
suggestions,  such  as  the  no-breakfast  plan,  raw  food 
diet,  or  fasting  as  hereinbefore  explained,  the  author 
will  be  very  glad  to  have  a  personal  letter  from  you 
giving  the  results  of  your  experiment,  which  experi- 
ment should  be  sufficiently  long  to  make  it  worthy  of 
the  name.  He  will  not  promise  to  answer  such  letters, 
which  will  not  be  necessary,  but  this  information  may 
be  later  compiled  so  as  to  assist  others  in  reaching  a 
logical  conclusion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  theories  put 
forth,  which  are  briefly  summarized  as  follows: 

That  we  should  return  as  much  as  possible  to  a 
natural  way  of  living,  spending  all  the  time  we  can 
out  in  the  open  air  and  breathing  copiously.  That 
we  should  sleep  in  the  open,  or  at  least  with  windows 
wide  open,  even  in  the  winter  time.  That  we  should 
eat  moderately,  not  over  two  meals  a  day,  and  that 
fruit  and  nuts  should  be  our  main  food  instead  of 
meat.  That  uncooked  food  is  better  than  cooked,  and 
that  the  appetite  should  not  be  pandered  to.  That 
disease  is  a  result  of  some  cause,  and  that  generally 
the  cause  is  in  wrong  methods  of  living.  That  the 
removal  of  the  cause  is  the  first  step  in  the  cure  of 
disease,  and  that  nature  will  do  the  rest  if  given  an 
opportunity  to  clean  out  the  system,  and  that  fasting 
affords  this  opportunity,  while  medicine  adds  new 
burdens  and  undesirable  complications.  That  the  peo- 
ple must  learn  to  take  care  of  their  own  health,  and 


154      HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

that  the  doctors'  position  in  modern  society  is  such 
that  it  is  against  their  economic  interest  to  teach  peo- 
ple how  to  live  free  from  disease,  and  they  can  not  be 
expected  to  destroy  their  own  "business."  That  much 
that  is  wrong  exists  in  the  environment  and  that  the 
environment  can  be  changed  by  cooperative  action. 
Logically,  the  sensible  thing  to  do,  if  you  wish  to 
live  one  hundred  years,  is  to  start  at  once  to  live  in 
accordance  with  nature's  laws,  to  be  intellectually, 
morally,  and  physically  clean,  both  inside  and  out. 
Next,  to  help  to  change  the  environment  so  that  it 
will  be  conducive  to  the  highest  unfoldment  of  all 
the  faculties  of  body,  intellect,  and  soul,  not  of  your- 
self alone,  but  of  every  child  born  into  this  world 
In  this  way  shall  we  realize  a  broader  individual  life 
and  make  possible  the  coming  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Man. 


Has  he  money  enough  for  an  operation,  or  shall  vie  just 
give  him  a  dose  of  saltsf 


A  FAIR  WARNING 


And  now  a  warning! 

When  you  commence  to  study  into  these  new- 
fangled health  ideas,  you  will  run  into  a  vast  network 
of  contradictions.  One  fellow  will  say  one  thing  and 
one  another,  and  the  "doctors"  will  consistently  dis- 
agree with  them  all,  as  they  do  with  each  other  on 
everything  but  the  proper  amount  to  charge  for  their 
services. 

One  fadist  will  tell  you  to  eat  prunes,  and  another 
that  prunes  are  dangerous  and  that  you  should  eat 
asparagus,  while  others  will  lead  you  this  way  and  that 
on  every  point  you  take  up.  Listen  to  them  all  pa- 
tiently and  then  do  as  you  darn  please.  At  least  that's 
the  way  the  author  regulates  his  mental  apparatus. 

In  the  last  analysis  each  tub  must  stand  on  its  own 
bottom,  even  though  it  has  the  poor  judgment  to  kick 
the  bottom  out  that  it  stands  on.  The  best  way  to 
know  a  thing  is  to  make  a  personal  demonstration  of 
it ;  this  thing  of  "trying  it  on  the  dog"  may  be  safer, 
but  the  poor  dog  can't  tell  you  about  his  "inside  feel- 
ings," and  even  a  dog  has  some  rights  that  a  human 


156       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

being  should  respect.  If  you  really  want  to  know  if 
prunes  are  good  food,  try  them  for  awhile.  If  you 
have  even  the  slightest  suspicion  that  a  raw  food  diet 
will  sustain  human  life  successfully  and  vigorously, 
give  it  a  fair  trial, — a  month  is  all  I  ask  for  this 
experiment. 

This  does  not  mean  that  I  would  have  you  trying 
all  manner  of  experiments  that  are  suggested.  First 
put  them  through  the  gauntlet  of  your  reasoning 
powers,  search  them,  sift  them,  run  them  to  earth, 
but  don't  discard  them  until  you  have  satisfied  your- 
self by  reasonable  investigation  and  analysis  that  they 
are  not  worthy  of  your  further  consideration. 

And  in  this  connection  do  not  forget  that  nearly  all 
the  great  discoveries  and  inventions  have  been  laughed 
at  and  ridiculed.  Mathematicians  figured  it  out  to  a 
certainty  that  the  steam  engine  could  not  propel  any- 
thing; religious  teachers  told  us  the  world  is  flat, 
while  the  "doctors"  pronounced  the  man  crazy  who 
first  told  them  about  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 

A  thing  may  seem  to  be  very,  very  foolish,  and 
still  be  very,  very  true;  the  "foolishness"  may.be  in 
your  own  mind. 

It  is  not  safe  to  turn  down  any  new  theory  these 
days,  just  because  it  is  new.  Listen  patiently  to  the 
fellow  who  has  a  new  message  and  try  and  set  aside 
your  preconceived  notions  and  get  his  viewpoint; 
it  may  be  good,  and  it  certainly  won't  hurt  you  to  be 
fair  and  open  minded. 

And  when  it  comes  to  this  question  of  right  living, 
do  not  forget  that  the  "doctor"  may  not  take  to  it 
kindly  for  purely  economic  reasons,  and  again  he  may 


A  FAIR  WARNING  157 

oppose  it  from  Simon  pure  ignorance.  Perhaps  you 
have  been  a  good  "customer,"  have  regularly  had  your 
aches  and  pains,  and  have  called  for  his  assistance  to 
fix  up  your  old  body  and  keep  you  in  running  order ; 
and  now  you  get  the  notion  that  you  ought  to  keep 
your  own  body  in  running  order,  that  nature  intended 
it  to  run  properly,  and  that  by  obeying  certain  simple 
laws  it  will  run  properly,  and  you  go  and  tell  the  dear 
"doctor"  about  it;  you  need  not  be  at  all  surprised  if 
he  goes  straight  up  in  the  air.  I  can  picture  him  now 
with  hands  raised  in  holy  horror  at  your  audacity, 
and  I  can  hear  his  warning  that  you  are  running  the 
gravest  risks  of  doing  yourself  irreparable  bodily  in- 
jury. And  I  can  hear  the  tone  of  sarcasm  in  his 
voice  as  he  speaks  of  the  "quacks"  and  "freaks"  who 
have  no  "professional  knowledge"  and  who  try  to 
"induce  the  unsophisticated  to  follow  their  brainless 
paths  that  lead  to  ruin  and  to  death."  Mercy  me! 

As  for  what  the  "doctor"  tells  you,  I  wouldn't  let 
that  worry  me  much ;  not  that  I  would  not  listen,  but 
after  listening  I'd  use  my  think-box  and  analyze  and 
dissect  his  statements;  and  then  I'd  keep  right  on 
seeking  the  road  to  health,  which  is  not  paved  with 
pills  and  medicine  bottles,  but  which  leads  along 
pleasant  wooded  fields  and  green  pastures,  out  where 
the  fruit  grows  and  the  nuts  cling  on  the  stems,  out 
where  the  air  is  pure  and  the  water  is  pure  and 
thoughts  are  pure  and  acts  are  clean  and  wholesome. 
And  when  I  found  that  road,  I'd  walk  its  pleasant 
pathway  past  one  hundred  mile-stones,  walk  with  head 
erect  and  buoyant  step  well  into  the  distance  where 
unseen  hands  beckon  me  to  lay  down  the  well-worn 


158       HOW  TO  LIVE  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

body  of  physical  matter  and  take  up  the  new  life  in 
that  indestructible  body  not  made  of  flesh,  and  on  a 
higher  plane  of  vibratory  manifestation. 

Whether  or  no,  dear  reader,  you  believe  in  the 
continuity  of  life  in  the  astral  world  is  a  matter  of 
comparatively  small  importance,  but  that  you  should 
believe  in  and  have  abundant  life  right  here  and  now 
is  a  matter  of  the  utmost  importance.  Right  living 
not  only  means  the  extension  of  the  years  into  a  ripe 
old  age,  but  it  means  that  every  day  will  be  full  of 
life,  that  the  body  will  be  the  perfect  tool  of  the  mind, 
obeying  its  wishes  with  power  and  reserve  strength, 
and  that  every  task  attempted  will  be  carried  through 
to  a  successful  completion.  Through  a  strong,  clean, 
perfect  body  the  mind  can  manifest  the  highest  that 
is  in  it. 

And  one  good  thing  about  this  entire  proposition 
is  that  it  don't  cost  you  a  penny  to  demonstrate  the 
truth,  and  to  know  from  personal  experiment  whether 
the  road  to  Wellville  lies  along  the  pathway  of  copious 
breathing,  abstemious  eating,  fasting  when  ill,  and 
right  thinking  and  acting.  It  will  certainly  cost  you 
much  to  disobey  the  laws  of  nature  and  be  "made 
whole'''  by  "doctoring,"  admitting  this  to  be  a  possi- 
bility. 

I  dream  of  an  age  when  every  man  will  be  his  own 
doctor,  his  own  lawyer,  and  his  own  judge.  I  may 
be  crazy,  but  for  all  that  it  is  a  pleasant  dream,  and  I 
shall  ever  strive  to  make  it  a  reality. 


IN  CONCLUSION 

If  you  have  enjoyed  reading  this  book,  you  may 
be  interested  in  other  works  of  the  author.  "Pa  and 
Young  America"  is  an  interesting  series  of  dialogues 
on  economic  topics  between  a  bright  boy  and  his  fa- 
ther, price  25  cents.  "The  Story  of  the  Giants  and 
Their  Tools,"  an  account  of  the  evolution  of  the  tool 
told  in  simple  story  form,  price  15  cents.  Both  pam- 
phlets are  illustrated  and  paper  bound.  At  this  writing 
the  author  has  "The  Story  of  the  Great  Gold  Mine" 
in  manuscript.  It  will  make  a  large  book,  at  least  300 
pages,  and  is  an  interesting  account  of  how  two  peo- 
ple found  and  used  a  mountain  of  gold.  Other  manu- 
scripts are  in  course  of  preparation.  If  interested, 
write  for  further  information. 

The  Billy  Goat  is  a  monthly  magazine  by  the  author 
at  $1  the  year,  and  has  been  designated  by  Jack  Lon- 
don as  a  "live  wire." 

THE  LOCKWOOD  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 
KALAMAZOO,  MICHIGAN. 


KAIAMAZOO 


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